63 pages • 2 hours read
Sulari GentillThe Woman in the Library
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Consider the ending of the story-within-a-story. Speculate on what happens after Leo appears to take Freddie and Marigold away from the hospital. Is he like Leo from the frame narrative, or a foil who shows the reader what Leo from the narrative could be? Support your response with evidence from the text.
Gentill never directly represents Hannah in the novel. What do you know about Hannah, and how do you know it? What might Gentill be saying about writing and writers by not including more direct presentation of Hannah in the text?
How would you classify The Woman in the Library in terms of genre? Is it a whodunit? A thriller? A romance? Include details from the text to support your discussion.
There are at least three works in this text—the novel Freddie is writing, the novel Hannah is writing, and the emails Leo writes to Hannah. Compare and contrast these texts (or at least what you are able to guess about them). What does Gentill gain creatively by including multiple levels of narrative? Did you prefer one of the texts over the other, and if so, why?
Leo A (the beta reader) grows increasingly unhinged over the course of the novel. Track his evolution as a character. At what point did you realize he might be an unreliable narrator?
Caroline Palfrey is the victim at the heart of The Woman in the Library, but she has no direct presentation in the text. Why do you think Gentill chooses to avoid Caroline’s body?
The library is also present in the title, but aside from the intense scene at the start of the novel, few other scenes are set in the library. Why do you think Gentill makes this choice? In general, how important is Boston as the setting? Could this novel plausibly be set anyplace other than Boston?
Consider Leo A’s (Leo in the frame text) discussion about racial representation and the publishing industry. Is his reading of race (or its absence) a credible one? What assumptions, if any, did you make about the characters? Do writers have a duty to include racial markers?
Based on the plots and characters in the novel, is it a good thing to write what one knows? What are the dangers and opportunities in doing so?
Leo A (from the frame text) believes Hannah should include the COVID-19 pandemic in her novel to avoid it being too dated. Is this a fair criticism? How have writers in other works handled the pandemic? Interviews in which writers or other creators discuss their handling of the pandemic and/or works that incorporate the pandemic might be useful resources to answer this question.
