The Things We Do to Make It Home

The Things We Do to Make It Home

by Beverly Gologorsky
The Things We Do to Make It Home

The Things We Do to Make It Home

by Beverly Gologorsky

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Overview

An emotionally charged story of passionate love, unfulfilled desire, and an American dream gone totally awry, Beverly Gologorsky's poignant, unadorned novel lays bare the destructive impact of the Vietnam War on the wives, lovers, and children of veterans. This haunting story of devotion and loss will speak to anyone who has suffered the effects of an unwinnable war.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781583228845
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Publication date: 09/01/2009
Pages: 226
Product dimensions: 5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

BEVERLY GOLOGORSKY is the author of the acclaimed novel The Things We Do to Make It Home, which was named a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Best Fiction book, and a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great Writers Award. Her work has appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Nation. A former editor of two political journals, Viet-Report and Leviathan, Gologorsky has contributed to Feminists Who Changed America, Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides, and The Friend Who Got Away: Twenty Women's True-Life Tales of Friendships That Blew Up, Burned Out or Faded Away. She lives in New York and Maine.

Read an Excerpt

1973

1. WHERE WE WERE

We were in bed

We were sauced

We were plastered

We were stoned

We were drumming floors

We were bathed in TV light

We were alive

We were together

We were back in the world.

And she's still not used to the noises he makes in other rooms. She hears him pacing the floor and snapping his fingers as if he can't contain the ideas popping into his head.

Dropping the green cotton skirt over her silky green blouse, she thinks it's crazy, dressing up this way to watch TV, but Rooster will twirl her around, three times at least, like she was the main show and he won't let it end. Before him, men were so ordinary, so predictable. He surprises her breath away, driving them into Manhattan at 3:00 a.m., the tall glass buildings filled with blue light and no people, his arm wrapping her waist. He never lets her stray from his side. Back home, they sneak upstairs, not waking her sister or Nick, hiding in bed till noon, their bodies tight together. It worries her the way he can go on with no sleep, expecting her to do the same, although when she can't he leaves her be, takes off by himself. Once they're married he'll settle down. He's just excited, the way she is, about everything.

Yesterday she missed her morning classes and arrived in a daze at the afternoon workshops, where the teacher was shagging hair. In the evening she found the time to perm the wig on her mannequin, which used to reside on the kitchen table until Rooster covered it and moved it to the window ledge. The eye sockets gave him the creeps. Soon she'll graduate and look for a full-time job. Rooster too. Thenthey can rent a place, their own, maybe buy it someday, and he can listen to music all night if he wants to.

She weaves the last strands of her hair into a French braid, and with arms faintly aching, slips the end into a barrette. Listen up, men, he'll say, Millie and I are getting married. She opens the closet door, studies the shoe rack. They agree, today is perfect for the announcement. They'll all be together. He'd better remember. She searches out her beige, high-heeled pumps.

He counts twenty-two steps from the bedroom door to the end of the living room. If he walks across the couch, it's only nineteen. He glances out the window. Looks like an afternoon storm that could last minutes, or days. No use trying to keep dry. The heavens are tricky. The key is not to care.

He switches on a lamp in the rapidly darkening room. Listens for the drumbeat of Millie's heels. She doesn't like him barging in while she's dressing. She says that he's got to give her some privacy. Soon there'll be thunder, lightning. He begins snapping his fingers. Twenty-two steps. He turns, fixes his eyes on the door. Twenty-two steps. Hey, baby, anchors need to be close to their boats.

He switches on another lamp, drops into a chair. A thunderclap rumbles deep in his chest. This vessel's ready to steer out of here. He stands up. Twenty-two steps. He looks for a magazine. None in sight.

He glances out at the yellow house across the street. A patch of grass black as the sky.

He flicks on the TV. Nothing. Goddamn box. Not even plugged in. Jesus. He can't be prowling around looking for a socket. Shit. Twenty-two steps. He opens the bedroom door. "Hey, baby."

She's slipping on her shoes. He wraps his arms around her, nuzzles his face into her clean-smelling hair. Make love, he thinks, so deep inside he'll hear nothing but the feathery sounds that come off her breath.

"Don't mess me."

He unzips her skirt. "You can't be messed, baby."

"They'll be here soon."

"They'll be late. They're always late." He sits her on his lap. "Pretty bird, why should we ever leave this room?" He slips off the barrette, begins unbraiding her silky, orange-red hair that's like a morning sun, a 'Nam moon. He traces the line of freckles marching down her neck. "We need to count these." He peers into her green saucer eyes scattered with infinite black and yellow specks. "Tiger eyes."

"Ever see one?"

"Heh, heh. They saw me." He lifts her blouse over her head.

"Don't undress me anymore." She shakes her shoulders.

"Why not?" He lays her on the bed, sliding up beside her.

"Don't you want to go the party, Rooster?"

His name, that name, still so strange from her lips. "We will. I'll dress you." "Let's not be late. They'll all be there, except Lucy and Nick."

Filled with the after-sweet tiredness of loving her, he might be able to sit still for the car ride. "Right. Can't expect him to leave the bubble till the bluebird flies through Manhattan."

What People are Saying About This

Carol Brightman

Beverly Gologorsky is on intimate terms with the mysterious reservoirs of feeling her men and women bring to the task of making it home from a war that won't let go. She also knows the worlds in which they move, the barrooms, beauty shops, city parks at night, hospitals and airports, and renders the beautifully. But it's her extraordinary sensitivity to the burden of history that Vietnam's veterans and their families carry in the marrow of their lives that marks The Things We Do To Make it Home for the short-list of postwar classics.
-- Author of Writing Dangerously: Mary McCarthy and Her World

Helen Yglesias

Beverly Gologorsky's novel proves once again that good fiction is the truest telling of the history of our times. The Things We Do To Make It Home uses the power of story to illuminate an untold tragedy. It goes beyond the terrible effects of Vietnam on its veterans to the widening devastation on the lives of their lovers, wives, and children. Rendered with vivid immediacy, this first novel is a work of rare, revelatory impact.
-- Author of Sweetsir

Todd Gitlin

Beverly Gologorsky's remarkable The Things We Do To Make It Home rings with truth. This is forceful writing about the undertow of the Vietnam war and other undersides of American life that I've seen evoked nowhere else. It's a gripping read.
-- Author of The Sixties

Gloria Emerson

Wrenching and original.

Susan Faludi

In The Things We Do To Make It Home, Beverly Gologorsky shines a brilliant and disturbing light into a time and place too long left in shadows by American literature. With great compassion and insight, she opens up to us not only the psychic realm of returned Vietnam vets but the even more neglected stories of the women -- wives and daughters both -- who loved them.
-- Author of Backlash

Reading Group Guide

About the Book:
In this poignant and unforgettable novel, the fierce repercussions of the Vietnam War are captured from an altogether original and touching angle. This story belongs to the women: the lovers, wives, and daughters who saw their men returned safely to them—but as unfamiliar, haunted souls who would forever be out of their reach.

Remember the American Dream. Beautiful House. Children. The Suburbs. He's in one piece. Safe at home. Ignore the reality. His fear of sleep. The imaginary person he talks to. The pills. The booze. The car parked miles away from the driveway. . . .

An emotionally charged story of passionate love, unfulfilled desire, and an American dream gone terribly awry, The Things We Do to Make It Home is a powerful portrayal of six women struggling to salvage their homes and their families while discovering the limits of devotion to help those they love. Though inviting comparisons to the work of Tim O'Brien and Bobbie Ann Mason, The Things We Do to Make It Home illuminates—in its own unique and unadorned style—the destructive effects of war on those who served and those who waited behind.Discussion Questions: Question: Did this novel change your perspective on the Vietnam War? On the role of women? Why or why not?

Question: Discuss the different kinds of damage inflicted by the war and its aftermath on the lives of these characters. Do you think there is any kind of damage control that could have averted some of these disasters?

Question: The silences in this novel are so palpable and dangerous and destructive. Why do we often have so much trouble talking to the people we love?

Question: Discuss the meaning and significance of the title of this novel.

Question: Some of the men in this novel are homeless, transient, displaced. For men such as Rooster, the street seems the only place to be comfortable. Discuss the many reasons people end up on the street. Did this novel challenge your understanding of the homeless?

Question: The women in this novel have to create new homes for themselves. What kind of homes do they create, if any, and how successful do you think they are in doing so?

Question: Of all the veterans in this novel, Rod is the only one who seems to have a real home. Why do you think this is so?

Question: Do you think Rod and Emma will resist and keep their house? What do you think will happen to them if they lose it?

Question: Why does Frankie decide to return to Vietnam? Do you think this is a wise decision? Do you think he will find what he is looking for?

Question: Do you think Frankie's encounter with J.J. in the bar is real or imagined or a bit of both?

Question: In discussing her relationship with Frankie, Ida says, "There is something between us, a kind of space I can't get past." What has created this "space"? How does this space manifest itself in the various relationships in this novel?

Question: Why is Frankie estranged from his sister Pauli? We do not hear her side of the phone conversations with Frankie. How do you think she would answer his questions?

Question: There is a large cast of characters in this novel. Which character(s) and narrative threads do you find the most com-pelling? Is there a character you wished to hear more from?

Question: Sara-Jo is so angry at her father, Rooster. Do you think she will outgrow this anger? Do you think she should outgrow it?

Question: How does Sara-Jo's understanding of her parents' relationship change over the course of this novel? How does she help free her mother from the past?

Question: These women are all struggling to determine the limits of love. Discuss what you think the limits of love are. Or should there be limits?

Question: Which of these women do you think will finally free themselves from the demons of their collective past?

Question: Can your group come to a consensus on a brief (one- or two-sentence) summary of this novel? Do you find that the various members of the group read books very differently and focus on different themes?

Question: Why did your group select this novel? How does this work compare with other works your group has read? What will you be reading next?

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