Food for Thought

People are always asking me how I came up with the idea for The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, and I always tell them the whole thing belongs to Truly.

Truly is not “real” of course—except that she kind of is. Before this version of the novel, there was another incarnation, one where the story belonged to the Morgan men. Well, Truly was having none of that. Her voice barreled in over the narrative, broke it into smithereens, and told me to pick up the pieces and start over, her way. I would, it seems, be telling the story from her perspective, with her words, whether I liked it or not.

She has been a singular muse, to say the least—chatty, bossy, and stubborn as all get-out. But also forgiving, tender, and full of regret. In other words, totally human. People often ask if Truly is some version me, and of course, in a way she is. She is my answer to the question of why we die the way we do.

I didn’t necessarily set out to write a book about that subject, but over the course of writing this novel, several friends and family members passed away—some from old age, some from disease, some, I guess, just because their numbers were up. Then I got pregnant in the middle of it all and almost miscarried my son. As I lay in bed wondering if I would be able to have him, I found myself asking the questions that Truly confronts at the end of the novel: When one of the needs in life turns out to be death is it murder or a mercy?

Enter Truly—a kind of spirit-guide of mortality who brings these issues to the table, but who is also constantly reminding us that life is a feast. There’s more, of course, to writing a novel than just “tuning in” to a character’s voice, but not much. Writing, I think, is as much an act of listening as anything else. Luckily, I chose to shut up and open my ears to Truly, even when I didn’t always like all the answers she was giving me, even when we sometimes fought.

Finally, like Truly, I also spend a lot of time cooking, and I believe there are similarities between writing and the culinary arts. For instance, I don’t really think you can be a good cook if you don’t like to eat. You always need a secret ingredient. You should never give away your recipes, and most of all, in my opinion, whatever you’ve made always tastes best when it’s shared. Truly, I’m sure, would absolutely agree. I hope you enjoy The Little Giant of Aberdeen County.

Reading Group Guide Discussion Questions

Truly is the “little giant” of this book, yet her size seems to make her less, rather than more, visible to the town around her. Can you explain this phenomenon? What do you think the author is trying to say about her outsider status?
Serena Jane and Truly are as physically different as sisters can be, yet Truly sees that this difference is crucial, explaining “the reason the two of us were as opposite as sewage and spring water, I thought, was that pretty can’t exist without ugly.” How would you describe Truly and Serena’s connection? How is it different from Truly’s relationship with Amelia Dyerson? Which seems the more genuine sisterhood to you?
As the successor to a long line of old-fashioned, small-town doctors, Robert Morgan is traditional, strict, and often cruel. In the end, however, the legacy terminates with him and he becomes Aberdeen’s last Dr. Morgan. How do he and Bobbie stray from the family paradigm? What Morgan characteristics stayed with each of them? Is the town “more modern” without a Dr. Morgan, and with Bobbie and Salvatore’s restaurant instead? Is the replacement of nurturing through nourishment rather than doctoring a symbolic replacement?
Death haunts Truly and all of Aberdeen, sometimes in unexpected ways. As a gardener, Marcus’s aim is to “make things live,” but, as Truly realizes, “wasn’t it also true that gardeners were always wrestling with death, whether in the form of drought, or blight, or hungry insects? In a garden, Marcus always said, death was the first, last, and only fact of life.” What other parallels do you see in the ways Marcus and Truly court life and death?
Truly’s size marks her as an outcast, but throughout the novel, other characters have trouble “fitting in” in a more figurative way. Examine how this manifests in Bobbie, Marcus, Amelia, even Serena Jane. What larger point do you think the author might be trying to make about the importance of conforming?
What role does Aberdeen County play in the novel? Could the story or these characters exist elsewhere? Do the effects of the 60s and the Vietnam War seem to touch Aberdeen in the same way they touched the rest of the country? What is unique and what is not about Aberdeen as a setting?
When Amelia discovers how Priscilla Sparrow and Robert Morgan died, she asks Truly whether it was mercy or murder that killed them. What do you think? How do you feel about Truly’s actions? What in Truly’s character draws her to “collect souls,” as she comes to call it?
When Marcus and Truly finally come together, Marcus says, “We’re not exactly a match made in heaven, you and I, but I figure we’re good enough for here on earth.” What does he mean by this? Do you agree?
Why doesn’t Robert Morgan “care” that his son runs away? What does it say about what he thinks of himself? How does this connect to Serena Jane’s leaving and his reaction to that event?
What do you think of Serena Jane's decision to leave Aberdeen? Is she making a selfish choice or is she just trying to save herself? Why do you think she chooses that point in the novel to leave? Does what you find out about her at the end of the novel change the way you see her decision?
After Robert Morgan’s death, Truly gradually takes on some of his responsibilities as town doctor by using the knowledge she’s gained from Tabitha’s quilt. How is this a fitting purpose for Truly, and a fitting counterpoint to the legacy of Morgan doctors?
What about this story is larger than life or possesses elements of a tall tale or folklore? How are these details woven into the story? How is the book similar to or different from other works in this tradition?