Synopses & Reviews
In the tiny English village of Hursley, two lifelong acquaintances have never given each other a second glance. Until, on the very night of man's first moon landing, a precipitous passion alights on their middle-aged existence. Out for a stroll, Norris Lamb--postmaster, stamp collector, and church organist--spies spinster Vida Stephen dancing with glorious, uncharacteristic abandon by the moonlit fountain of the mansion where she tends the mute, retarded son of an absent employer. Norris senses a buried bravado and romance, a fragility and loneliness, that match his own. And he sets out, covertly, to woo her.
But both Norris and Vida are innocents in this endeavor. His courtship blunders down many wrong turns before it finds its unlooked-for catalyst in Manford, the gentle young man who is Vida's charge...and blossoms as a force to change three lives.
In luminous prose laced with quiet humor, Lamb in Love shows how love transforms the most ordinary and imperfect mortals.
Vida, unaware that Norris is in the throes of a wild--but unvoiced--passion, must herself decide whether to remain in the small English village where she has lived her entire life, or strike out on her own in search of a grand adventure.
Watching these two people surprised by love is Manford, the young disabled man who has been in Vida's charge for the last twenty years. Possessed of a strange and gentle intelligence, it is through Manford that Norris and Vida finally come to recognize each other and themselves. Heartwarm- ing, madcap, utterly beautiful, LAMB IN LOVE celebrates the strange and mysterious brilliance that is love. And it confirms Carrie Brown's status as an important and luminous talent. -->
Synopsis
In the tiny English village of Hursley, as astronauts are landing on the moon for the first time, a young disabled man helps a middle-aged man and woman realize their love for each other after being lifelong acquaintances.
About the Author
Carrie Brown was awarded the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for her first novel, Rose's Garden. She lives in Sweet Briar, Virginia, with her husband and their three young children, and teaches fiction at Sweet Briar College.
Reading Group Guide
"Unconventional and eloquent."
--The New York Times
"Engaging...and surprisingly effective."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Brown eloquently explores the terrain of human interactions, showing how genuine love can exalt ordinary individuals."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Brown takes such care with these simple people's hopes and fears that before we know it, their luminary love seems as wondrous as anything else on earth, or beyond."
--The Christian Science Monitor
"There are stories that please because of a writer's deft touch; others are propelled by a storyteller's skill. And then there are a very few that touch the heart in ways hard to describe, that speak to dreams and shared humanity. Lamb in Love is all of these things."
--USA Today
1. Is it merely a coincidence that Lamb falls in love the night the Apollo lands on the moon? What does it mean to Norris and Vida that humans have landed on the moon? How is moon imagery used in the novel?
2. Why do you think Norris collects stamps? Is Manford drawn to stamps for the same reason? How does Norris' stamp collecting hobby play a role in his love life?
3. Why does Vida suffer occasional fits of weeping and "sudden apprehension, so quick and sharp it feels like pain"? Do you think Vida and Norris are happy living in the small town of Hursley? What is it that keeps them from leaving? Do you think Vida will return to Hursley and Norris after her holiday in Corfu? Do you think she should?
4. How would you characterize Vida's relationship to her uncle Laurence? What does Laurence represent to Vida? What does it mean that she has an "imaginary" Corfu in her mind?
5. Vida and Norris grew up together in Hursley, and yet were never interested in one another until now. What is it that they appreciate in one another in middle age, that they failed to see in youth? Were these qualities there all along, or were they developed over the years? What is it that finally enables them to notice one another?
6. Norris advises a cynical young boy that "perhaps we only get one wish. One in the whole of our lifetime. But you never know when it's going to be granted, you see. It might be anytime. So you might as well just keep on wishing. In fact, you'd better wish every chance you get, because if you don't--if you don't keep wishing, you might just miss your chance." What is Norris getting at with this piece of advice? Do you agree with him? What might have prompted Norris to suddenly be so eloquent and passionate about wishing?
7. How do events and the weather conspire to bring Vida and Norris together? If it weren't for the timing of NASA, certain rainfalls, a spider web, the church talent show, etc., do you think they would have ever found one another? Were they fated to be together? How do you believe love works?
8. Manford walks, "stroking the air in that odd way he has, as if feeling it billow past him like green waves around the trunk of a giant, a giant striding through the teeming leagues of an ocean--" Why do you think he walks in this manner? Can he feel the currents of the air?
9. How does falling in love transform Norris? What does he mean when he thinks, "for the first time in his life-- he has something to lose. He's sure of it."? What does falling in love teach Norris about himself?
10. What role does Manford play in the courtship of Vida and Norris? How aware is Manford of the budding romance? What key to Vida's heart does Manford offer Norris with his shadow puppets? Why do you think Manford is so quick to trust and befriend Norris?