If Morning Ever Comes A Novel [Paperback]

"A triumph."

HARPERS

Ben Joe Hawkes is a worrier. Raised by his mother, grandmother, and a flock of busy sisters, he's always felt the outsider. When he learns that one of his sisters has left her husband, he heads for home and back into the confusion of childhood memories and unforseen love....Anne Tylerwas born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of many novels, includingDinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist, Noah’s Compass,andA Spool of Blue Thread. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Tyler lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

1. Why does Ben Joe go home to Sandhill? What is the
triggering incident that makes him get on the train?
What are some of the other underlying reasons that send
him home?

2. One reviewer described the Hawkes family home as
“loveless.” Do you agree? In what ways is the family conventional?
In what ways is it unconventional?

3. What are the things that you’re not allowed to talk
about at the Hawkeses’ house? Who enforces the no-talk
rules?

4. How do you think Ben Joe feels being the only man
in the house? How do his sisters treat him? His mother?
His grandmother? What is Ben Joe looking for in his
childhood home?

5. Who was Dr. Phillip Hawkes? What do we learn about
him over the course of the novel? How does Ben Joe feel
about him?

6. Who is Jamie Dower, and why is he in the book at all?
Why does his death affect Gram so deeply? What does
her reaction to his death say to her family?

7. This book is about alcoholism, love, family, adultery,
divorce, money, and grief—and yet it is not at all heavyhanded
or lugubrious. How does Tyler keep the pages
turning? How does she use humor and quirkiness? What
does she have to say about all these “issues”?

8. Why does Ben Jls&