READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Lainey assumes the position as caretaker in her family–with three distracted brothers, a hapless father, and a mother at her wit’s end, she thinks of herself as the one who holds them all together. Have you found that in large families there is always someone in this role? Do you think she should feel as accountable as she does for her family’s ability to function?

 2. How do you feel about Lainey’s decision regarding Adam when she moves to Ireland? Do you think she made the right choice? In your opinion, do long-distance relationships ever work? 

3. Why do you suppose Lainey has such a type A personality and needs to control everything? How does she change in terms of her rigidity over the course of the novel, and what accounts for her transformation? 

4. Lainey and Eva are best friends, yet have such different personalities. What are the defining dynamics of their relationship, and how does their friendship work so well? In your own experience, are you more drawn to people who are similar to or different from you? 

5. What is your perception of Aunt May and the decision she makes in her will? Is she selfish or eccentric, or does she have the best intentions at heart? 

6. Lainey trades her office job for a vastly different one when she runs the B&B . . . and comes to enjoy the experience. When have you been pleasantly surprised after entering an experience you dreaded? 

7. Lainey has the unsettling experience of questioning her mother’s loyalty to her father, making a discovery that changes her childhood perceptions about her parents. Can you remember the first time you realized your parents were complicated adults with lives of their own? 

8. Discuss the theme of risk in this novel. Does it generally pay off for McInerney’s characters? How do you think Lainey’s life would have turned out if one of her brothers had gone to Ireland instead? 

9. Eva is very candid about Lainey’s faults, providing a wake-up call for her friend. Have you ever had anyone do the same for you? How did your reaction compare to Lainey’s? 

10. There is a rich sense of setting and Irish history in this novel, and as a result the reader is immersed in a dif- ferent culture. What other books have you read that have had a similar “armchair travel” effect? 

11. On page 188, Lainey states, “Evie, things happen as a result of your actions, by putting your mind to it, not through fate or some preordained life plan.” Do you agree with her or Evie, who earnestly asks, “But don’t you ever think things happen for a reason?” 

12. There are many thematic messages–about family, friends, romance, and living life in general–to come away with after reading Greetings from Somewhere Else. Which resonates with you most?