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Overview
So what if her house is in shambles? Who cares when she last changed her clothes? If an eighty-two-year-old widow wants to live on junk food, pills, and cigarettes, hasn’t she earned the right? When her kids force her into The Palisades, an assisted living facility, Cora takes to her bed, planning to die as soon as possible. But life isn’t finished with her yet, not by a long shot.
Deciding that truth is the best revenge, Cora begins to write a tell-all journal that reveals once and for all the secret she has guarded since she was a young woman. In entries that are profane, profound, and gossipy, she chronicles her childhood in rural Missouri, her shotgun wedding, and the terrible event that changed the course of her life.
Intermingled with her reminiscences is an account of the day-to-day dramas at The Palisades—her budding romance with a suave new resident, feuds with her tablemates, her rollicking camaraderie with the man who oversees her health care, and the sinister cloud of suspicion that descends as a series of petty crimes sets everyone on edge. The story builds to a powerful climax as Cora’s revelations about her past mesh with the unraveling intrigue in the present.
Cora is by turns outrageous, irreverent, and wickedly funny. Despite a life with more than its share of disappointment and struggle, she refuses to go gently into her twilight years, remaining intensely curious, disinclined to play it safe, and willing to start over.
Breaking Out of Bedlam captures the loneliness and secrets that lurk within families, the hardscrabble reality facing women with limited resources, and the resilience of a woman who survives, despite all the odds, through an unlikely combination of passion, humor, and faith.
“Tough-edged Cora Sledge, 82, is a reluctant resident of The Palisades nursing home—a ‘prison [where] your only crime is you lived too long.’ Her tell-all journal, recounting dramas at the home (thefts, love affairs, rivalries) and a tragedy buried in her past, is profane, harrowing, comical—and Cora’s voice is spot-on.”—AARP Magazine
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780307460783 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Crown Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 01/12/2010 |
| Sold by: | Random House |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 320 |
| Sales rank: | 650,590 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
THE BLANK BOOK
I got this book from my granddaughter Emma. The cover looks like a gunny sack. It has a dried purple flower on the front, and all the pages are blank. It’s supposed to be pretty. The purple pen that goes with it is squishy, like chewed-up gum. “So it doesn’t hurt your hand, Gamma,” Emma said. I laughed, thinking where my hand has been these eighty-two years, and what it’s done. I was polite, though, and asked her real nice what in the world I’m supposed to do with it. “It’s for your thoughts,” she said. “If you have any memories or reflections you want to write down. Or a poem, maybe, or a sentiment you think is meaningful.”
That girl has always worked my last nerve.
They all feel guilty for putting me here, so they’re trying to keep me from losing my mind. I also got a jigsaw puzzle (one of the biggest wastes of time I can think of) and an embroidery set (which I have always hated) for Christmas. My son Dean even gave me a paint-by-numbers kit with three kinds of dogs: a poodle, a collie, and a German shepherd. Do they think I am retarded? That I’ve gone back to my childhood?
They don’t know the first thing about me.
I put those other gifts down in the day room and they got snapped up like nobody’s business. I tucked this book in my top drawer thinking I could tear the pages out if I needed some blank paper. It’s thick as a damn Bible. I don’t know who in their right mind could ever fill it. Then this morning I got up early, when the light was just starting to come through the blinds. Usually my pills knock me out ‘til breakfast, when the walkers and wheelchairs make a slow-motion stampede for the dining room. But this morning was quiet. Nobody calling out from their bed, or knocking a mop around. The phones at the nurses’ station weren’t ringing yet, the gardeners weren’t running their leaf blowers, and the delivery trucks weren’t idling outside my window.
This morning I sat straight up in bed like somebody called my name. Lots of times I can’t get out of bed at all. I stay there all day, dozing and waking up, dozing and waking up. I might swallow a few more of my little darlings to settle my nerves. Sometimes whole chunks of the day disappear. Fine by me. But today I woke clear as a bell. I did my bathroom business, sat down here at my dressing table, and started to write.
I got a plan. I’m going to write down everything I ever wanted to say. I’m not holding nothing back and I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks. Most people don’t tell the truth about their lives, including me. I’ve done things I’m not proud of. I lied to keep myself alive because life is hard and there’s things you got to do. But now I got nothing to lose. I’m going to tell the truth, once and for all. I hope those that put me in this place read it when I’m dead—which I have a feeling won’t be long. Maybe then they’ll see.
The trucks are starting to idle outside new, spitting fumes right into my window. And the inmates are creeping down the hall, yelping like animals fighting to get to the watering hole. Damned if I’m not hungry myself. Those rubbery eggs don’t sound half bad.
I got another reason for keeping this book. It’s called leaving a paper trail. Something fishy’s going on in this place and I want a record in case anything happens to me. That’s right. There’s whispering, and shifty looks, and things gone missing.
It’s all going down here.
I’m using the purple pen.
I’ve always had the prettiest handwriting.
Reading Group Guide
1. Cora and her siblings are named after gems. Abel’s siblings are named after biblical characters. What is the significance of names in the novel?
2. Discuss the men in Cora’s life: Edward, Abel, Marcos, and Vitus. How are they the similar? Different? What role does each play in Cora’s life? In the novel as a whole?
3. Cora says, “One thing I learned from this whole mess is never to forget that life can slap you in the face any minute it feels like it. For no reason at all, it can say Guess what and the next thing you know everything has changed, everything that you thought was true and right and forever don’t mean squat.” When and how does Cora get slapped in the face? How does she react? What are the long-term effects?
4. Why does Abel marry Cora? Why does he stay with her? What do they mean to each other? Why does he come back as a ghost to comfort and counsel her?
5. Cora says, “My weight, or my size—like everybody likes to call it when what them mean is fat—has been the curse of my life.” What significance does Cora’s size have in the novel? How does it affect who she is and what happens over the course of her life?
6. The two threads of the story, past and present, interweave throughout the narrative. How do these strands reflect and explain each other? How does the reader experience jumping from one to the other?
7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of structuring the novel as a journal? How does it affect the reading experience? How does it function in the pacing of the story? In the juxtaposition of Cora’s past and present life?
8. In the last chapter, Cora says, “When I die and you come to clean out my house, you’ll find [these journals]. You can do whatever you want. I’ve pictured you reading them and finding out the truth. If you see any mistakes—spelling or wrong words—you can fix them. You have my okay.” Whom is she addressing? What audience does she have in mind when she writes?
9. Why and how will Cora’s life be different when she returns to her house than when she left it? What is responsible for the transformation?
10. Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon, says “Read this book to see redemption.” In what ways is Cora redeemed? What contributes to her redemption?
Introduction
In order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it is necessary to reveal important aspects of the plot of this book—as well as the ending. If you have not finished reading Breaking Out of Bedlam, we respectfully suggest that you may want to wait before reviewing this guide.