The Book Club for Troublesome Women
The women in this book come together because of their shared love of doing this extremely dangerous activity: discussing books.
What is reading?
This is the occupation that makes the protagonist particularly skilled at putting her thoughts into carefully chosen words.
What is writing?
Theo moves to this small town, whose name sounds like it was specifically chosen to make the book's title adorable.
What is Golden?
The novel takes place largely within this highly competitive program where astronauts are trained for space missions.
What is NASA?
This is the war that sends Frances “Frankie” McGrath to Vietnam.
What is the Vietnam War?
The book club is made up of women who are far from fitting the stereotype of being perfectly behaved, polite members of society — hence this word in the title.
What is troublesome?
The majority of this novel is told through this very old-school form of communication — no texting, no DMs, not even a “k” in sight.
What are letters?
Theo's arrival in Golden leads him to become involved with the people of this close-knit community.
What is the town?
This is the obvious destination everyone in the novel is training to reach — approximately 240,000 miles away.
What is the Moon?
Frankie joins this branch of the military, becoming one of the women serving overseas.
What is the Army?
The women aren't just discussing literature; their book club becomes a place where they can do this with one another — something many of them desperately need.
What is confide / share secrets?
Katherine, the novel's central character, has spent much of her life communicating with people through these rather than necessarily having them sitting across from her.
What are correspondents?
Rather than being a story about one huge, world-changing adventure, Theo of Golden focuses heavily on these everyday things that connect people.
What are relationships / community / human connections?
Joan Goodwin is training to become one of these, making “I need some space” a particularly appropriate thing for her to say.
What is an astronaut?
Frankie goes to Vietnam largely because she wants to follow in the footsteps of these two people in her life.
Who are her brother and father?
At some point, the ladies discover that their seemingly innocent book club is connected to something considerably more dramatic than arguing over whether a book deserved four or five stars.
What is a murder / crime?
Katherine's correspondence with this particular person becomes especially significant and forces her to confront parts of her past she might otherwise have left alone.
Who is Ivy?
Theo's life in Golden demonstrates that sometimes the people who change your life the most are the ones you initially have no particular reason to expect will do so.
What are unexpected friendships?
Joan's relationship with this fellow astronaut becomes one of the central emotional relationships of the novel.
Who is Vanessa?
When Frankie returns home, she discovers that many Americans don't welcome veterans of this particular war, creating one of the novel's most painful conflicts.
What is the Vietnam War?
Forget “What did you think of the ending?” This is the much more important question the women ultimately have to deal with as their book club gets increasingly complicated.
What is who can be trusted?
The novel ultimately asks readers to consider how a relationship can become deeply meaningful even when the people involved have never shared this seemingly obvious part of a traditional friendship.
What is physical proximity / being together in person?
If you had to summarize one of the novel's biggest ideas in one word, this concept — something Theo finds through the people around him — would be a very good answer.
What is belonging?
The novel's title refers not only to outer space but also evokes the environment these characters must survive in — a place where there is essentially none of this.
What is breathable air / atmosphere?
The title The Women challenges the idea that only these people deserve to be called heroes of war.
Who are the men / male soldiers?