Prairie Nocturne A Novel [Paperback]

Prairie Nocturneis the epic saga of two former lovers sired in the pages of Ivan Doig's acclaimed Montana Trilogy. Susan Duff -- the bossy, indomitable schoolgirl with a silver voice fromDancing at the Rascal Fair--has reached middle age alone, teaching voice lessons to the progeny of Helena's high society. Wesley Williamson, young married heir to the Double W cattle empire, has been forced out of a political career as a result of his affair with Susan having become known. Years later, Wes and Susan have reunited to share in an extraordinary goal: launching the singing career of Monty Rathbun--a man on the wrong side of the racial divide. In this triumph of sure-footed storytelling, motives and fates dangerously entangle.
Set in Montana, France, Scotland, and New York during the Harlem Renaissance,Prairie Nocturneis a deeply longitudinal novel that raises everlasting questions of allegiance, the grip of the past, and the cost of passion.PRAIRIE NOCTURNE

DISCUSSION POINTS
1. The Overture to the story is an excerpt from Susan's diary, ostensibly discovered in the year 2025: A story wants to be told a certain way, or it is merely the alphabet badly recited. At the right time the words borrow us, so to speak, and then out can come the unsuspected sides of things with a force like that of music. This is the story of the three of us, which I am more fit to tell now than when I was alive. What do you suppose the author intended to convey with this statement? Did it hold different meaning for you after you finished reading the story?
2. Did the passages from Susan's journal give you further insight into her character? Does keeping a diary give her greater clarity about her own life and the people in it? Why does Susan give her diary to Wes?
3. The reader first sees Wes when Susan does -- when he lets himself into her house in the middle of the night with a spare key he has been keeping for four years since they last pal“‘