Patricia Volonakis Davis
Harlot's Sauce Reading Guide
Reading Guide for:
Harlot's Sauce:
A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss, and Greece
by Patricia Volonakis Davis
list price: $13.95
pages: 265
format: paperback
ISBN: 978-9819153-0-2
Note: It is permissable to copy and paste this readers' guide into a document for printing and use for book clubs or discussion groups. You may also obtain a free document version of this guide by emailing the publisher at orders@harperdavis.com
About this Book
Patricia, a rather hapless, yet headstrong Italian-American girl, begins a whole new life when she moves to Greece. But it turns out to be not at all the life she was anticipating, and the biggest challenge she faces comes not from her new country, but from the yearning inside herself.
In Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece, Patricia Volonakis Davis stirs together what are usually seen as opposites ─ humor with pathos, beauty with tragedy, and reprisal with compassion, so that we never know what exotic blend we are going to taste next. But we do learn that whatever she cooks up, we’ll find it very appetizing, because the writing in Harlot’s Sauce is at once savvy, poetic, humorous, and of course, saucy.
About the Author
Patricia Volonakis Davis is the editor-in-chief of Harlots’ Sauce Radio, an e-magazine and podcast which she founded on the theme of her memoir, “something delicious out of limited choices.” Harlots’ Sauce Radio is the first of its kind ─ non-partisan, and boasting a collection of writers who hail from many corners of the earth, from many different social and political points of view. Apart from her magazine, you can find Patricia’s various published articles, essays, poems, and other written works, simply by web-searching her name.Harlot's Sauce has ranked in the top five of its category on amazon.com and number one on Kindle.
Discussion Questions
1. What do we notice about this memoir immediately, just from viewing the chapter headings of the “Contents” page?
2. What do you think the purpose is of the quotes at the start of each chapter and subchapter? What is the pattern of type, origin? What are your thoughts about them?
3. In the story there are allusions to Greek mythology. Are any of those mentioned familiar to you?
4. Throughout the memoir Patricia talks about the importance in her Italian subculture and Gregori’s Greek culture of “buona figura” (making a good impression on others), and belief in “the evil eye.” Both of these ideas had a profound effect on her and Gregori’s actions, thoughts, and beliefs. Do these two notions exist in any other cultures besides the Greek and Italian that you know of? Do you know anyone who’s been affected by them?
5. In your opinion, is Patricia’s portrayal of her Greek mother-in-law sympathetic or harsh?
6. There are a number of ‘defining moments’ in Patricia’s life that cause great changes in her thought process and belief system. One of these is the birth of her son. There are several important others. What are they?
7. How do all the individual women Patricia encounters, including the unhappy ones, fit in with the memoir’s theme of “something delicious out of limited choices?”
8. How do you think traveling affects some people’s openness to new experiences?
9. Why do you think Patricia wrestled so hard and so long with the reality that she needed to break free of her marriage?
10. What were the most extraordinary things you learned about Greece from this story? Could you live there? Why or why not? What were some of the qualities of Greek life that you would like to see incorporated into your way of life?
11. What makes Patricia’s writing style effective? How does her particular voice make her descriptions come alive? What images did you find to be particularly striking?
12. What role does food play in this story, both metaphorically and culturally?
13. What did you find to be the most entertaining takes on xenophobia and feminism?
14. Patricia’s loving descriptions of Greece, including its beauty, history, and culture, add sensuality and a sense of adventure to the story, but what other functions do they serve?
15. At the end of the story, under “Explanations and Apologies” Patricia writes, “if you recognize yourself here and it appears I’m making fun, I ask you to please look again, because the one I mocked mostly was myself.” Did you find this to be an accurate statement? Why or why not?
GENERAL INTEREST QUESTIONS
- What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?
- Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?
- In what ways do the events in the books reveal evidence of the author's world view?
- Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?
- What did you find surprising about the facts introduced in this book?
- How has reading this book changed your opinion of a certain person or topic?
- Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does she achieve this?
- If the author is writing on a debatable issue, does he or she give proper consideration to all sides the debate? Does she seem to have a bias?
- How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?
Note: General Interest Questions taken from http://www.book-clubs-resource.com. For the rest, it is permissible to copy and paste this readers' guide into a document for printing and use for book clubs or discussion groups. You may also enjoy listening to the recorded readings from the memoir on the podcasts page of this website.
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