Book Of Dahlia

From the author of the critically acclaimed story collection How This Night Is Different comes a dark, arresting, fearlessly funny story of one young woman's terminal illness. In The Book of Dahlia, Elisa Albert walks a dazzling line between gravitas and irreverence, mining an exhilarating blend of skepticism and curiosity, compassion and candor, high and low culture.

Meet Dahlia Finger: twenty-nine, depressed, whip-smart, occasionally affable, bracingly honest, resolutely single, and perennially unemployed. She spends her days stoned in front of the TV, watching the same movies repeatedly, like "a form of prayer." But Dahlia's so-called life is upended by an aggressive, inoperable brain tumor.

Stunned and uncomprehending, Dahlia must work toward reluctant emotional reckoning with the aid of a questionable self-help guide. She obsessively revisits the myriad heartbreaks, disappointments, rages, and regrets that comprise the story of her life -- from her parents' haphazard Israeli courtship to her kibbutz conception; from the role of beloved daughter and little sister to that of abandoned, suicidal adolescent; from an affluent childhood in Los Angeles to an aimless existence in the gentrified wilds of Brooklyn; from a girl with "options" to a girl with none -- convinced that cancer struck because she herself is somehow at fault.

With her take-no-prisoners perspective, her depressive humor, and her extreme vulnerability, Dahlia Finger is an unforgettable anti-heroine. This staggering portrait of one young woman's life and death confirms Elisa Albert as a "witty, incisive" (Variety) and even "wonder-inducing" writer (Time Out New York).

"[H]ilarious and heartbreaking.... Albert's superb first novel...begins with the omniscient narrator's scathingly Edith Wharton-worthy catalogue of Dahlia's symptoms and ends with her first grand mal seizure.... Throughout, Albert delivers Dahlia's laissez-faire attitude toward other people and lack of ambition with such exactness as to strip them of cliche and make them grimly vivid. Her brilliant style makes the novel's central question -- should we mourn a wasted life? -- shockingly poignant." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Elisa Albert has the unique gift of making bedmates out of humor and heartbreak. The Book of Dahlia is wonderful." -- Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan

"Never maudlin, occasionally harrowing, and often hilarious, The Book of Dahlia is a dark, surprising wonder. Faced with her own imminent and unavoidable demise, Dahlia doesn't flinch -- but you will." -- Kelly Braffet, author of Last Seen Leaving

"The Book of Dahlia does not go gently into that good night -- each line howls with pain and rage and laughter. It takes an unflinching look at terminal illness in our culture of sunny denial and doesn't let readers off the hook, either -- this book will bring you to your knees. It's also the funniest thing I've read in years." -- Karen Russell, author of St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

From the author of the acclaimed story collection "How This Night Is Different" comes a fearless, arresting, outrageously funny exploration of one young woman's terminal illness.

Elisa Albert is the author of the short story collection How This Night is Different and the novel The Book of Dahlia.  She has taught creative writing at Columbia University and is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Holland.

1. Something Wrong
2. Understanding Your Diagnosis
3. A Different Kind of Disease
4. The Bright Side
5. Get a Second Opinion
6. You're the Boss
7. Trust Your Treatment
8. Choose Life
9. Find a Support System
10. Evaluate Your Relationships
11. Heal Yourself
12. Live Now
13. Laugh
14. Reframe
15. Be Grateful
16. Have Faith
17. Forgive and Forget
18. Be Well

Discussion Questions

1. What was your initial impression of Dahlia? Did your opinion change as the story progressed and significant details about her life experience were revealed? Why or why not?

2. What do you think about the idea that a positive attitude is the most important ingredient for a happy, healthy life? Why does Dahlia resist this theory, and what does it tell us about her? Do you think Dahlia's attitude "dooms" her? Many of us have had experiences with cancer, either personally or in our families. In our experiences, how has this dictate to be "positive" affected us and our loved ones? Is there a part of us that wants to kick and scream and complain and feel sorry for ourselves, even though we know it's not productive? Discuss your own experiences with illness. Does illness transform us? Why or why not?

3. "Sure, the situation was bad, but Dahlia felt free, freer than ever, to do what she did best: muck around in the heinous reality of it. She was unimpeachable. She could say and think and feel whatever she wanted. She had cancer! (p. 40)" On some level is Dahlia a little bit glad to have this terminal illness? Does she believe it lends weight and shape and meaning and confirmation to her enormous unhappiness?

4. Dahlia spends a lot of her time watching television, often viewing the same movies on cable over and over again. Why is watching familiar movies "a kind of prayer (p. 6)" for Dahlia?

5. Discuss Dahlia's relationship with her brother, Danny. What compels her to pursue a relationship with him for so many years despite his thoughtless cruelty to her? What does her persistent devotion to and adoration for Danny tell us about her? Why, then, do you think Dahlia refuses to forgive Danny even on her deathbed?

6. "A vile, self-absorbed, depressing, lazy, messy, spoiled, f---ed-up, probably mentally ill loser dies. So what?" muses The Book of Dahlia (p. 252). How would you answer one of the novel's central questions: Is a seemingly "wasted" life worth mourning?

7. If you found her difficult to like in general, are there nevertheless things about Dahlia that you do find sympathetic? Can you think of some emotional or psychological ways in which Dahlia does indeed triumph? When we encounter a character with whom we don't totally identify, what can we learn about ourselves from our reactions?

8. What do you think is useful about art (literature, music, film, painting, photography) that is "depressing" or full of angst and pain? What do you gain from looking at or reading or watching or listening to a work of art that is sad or unpleasant as opposed to cheerful and uplifting? Do you think we can learn from "depressing" art, or should we want to see only happy things?

9. What do you think the narrator means in calling Dahlia's story a "litmus test (p. 252)"? Do you think you passed or failed this test and why?

10. If Dahlia made you feel judgmental or unsympathetic, discuss how and why you dislike her. In what ways does a character like Dahlia make us confront our own fears and regrets? What role has resentment played in your own life, and how have you conquered it or struggled to conquer it? Discuss a time in your life when you were bogged down in negative emotions, and talk about how you got through it.

11. Given the choice to wallow in self-pity and anger and resentment or take charge of our lives and let go of the past, how and why are we sometimes able to choose the latter? What makes a person strong enough to "Choose Life" versus someone who is unable to do so?

12. How do you think our society as a whole deals with death? Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the cultural and religious ideas about death that you've encountered? What are your own attitudes about and notions of death? How have these changed throughout your life? Is it something you think about often? Why or why not?

Enhance Your Book Club

1. Elisa Albert has said that Leo Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Susan Sontag's essay Illness as Metaphor served as inspirations for The Book of Dahlia. Read those works and discuss thematic overlaps.

2. Read Albert's short story collection, How This Night Is Different, and discuss its similarities to and differences from The Book of Dahlia.

3. Learn more about the author by visiting her website www.elisaalbert.com, where you can find interviews, profiles, and reviews of The Book of Dahlia and How This Night Is Different.

4. Listen to Albert's interview with Scott Simon on NPR's Weekend Edition at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90157329.

5. Listen to Albert's podcast interview with Nextbook editor Ellen Umansky at http://www.nextbook.org/cultural/feature.html?id=795.