The four characters who take turns narrating Leigh McMullan Abramson’s debut novel, A Likely Story, are what fiction dreams are made of. They’re complicated, calculating, and oh so fun to carry on with. Once you’ve finished the book (spoilers below, friends!) get to unpacking all it contains with these questions for discussion. Want the full Page and Pairing guide to the novel? Find it here.
A Likely Story
by Leigh McMullan Abramson
1. The prologue of this novel begins from Claire’s point of view, in 1989. Why do you think the author chooses to begin the novel this way?
2. At the funeral, Isabelle notes of her father that “he does best with an audience.” How does this observation recur throughout the novel?
3. With the arrival of her thirty-fifth birthday, Isabelle thinks that “she viewed age as almost a failure of will, something she could avoid with sheer determination.” How do the characters in this novel grapple with aging (both their own and that of those around them), mortality, and legacy?
4. At her birthday lunch, Glenda gifts Isabelle a copy of every book on the New York Times bestseller list, telling her “you can make your writing more like those writers, who clearly have more of a handle on what they’re doing,” and later “Everyone’s copying someone.” What do you think of this scene? Do you think Glenda’s tactic is well-meaning?
5. This novel draws its title from a line in Underpainting: “So Livia thinks she’s the mastermind behind Aiden’s success? Oh please, a likely story.” Does your understanding of the title change knowing this context?
6. The story is told from four perspectives — that of Claire, Isabelle, Ward, and Brian. What do you think each perspective adds to the narrative as a whole?
7. Livia serves as an alter ego for Claire, although she is published as Isabelle’s character. How do you think Isabelle interprets this character, knowing that she is a conduit for her mother? Does Isabelle’s ending of the story vary from what Claire might have done?
8. Isabelle’s godmother and Claire’s best friend, Glenda, is often at odds with Ward, who describes her as “self-righteous, enthralled with her own import.” In many ways, she and Ward can be similar. Why do you think Claire is drawn to this type of person? And how do they contrast with Claire’s own personality?
9. Ward sabotages Isabelle’s book submission due to his “vicious, consuming envy” that Isabelle “got to be the new, shiny thing.” How does Ward’s envy of his own daughter play out in this novel?
10. In a confrontation with Brian toward the end of the novel, he tells Isabelle that “your primary identity is being your father’s daughter.” Isabelle’s later essay identifies herself as “the writer’s daughter.” Which parent do you think wins out in the end?
11. Claire puts aside Underpainting shortly after Isabelle’s accident in Jamaica, implying that she wants to refocus her attention on her daughter. Do you think this is true? What other forces might have caused her to abandon it?
12. Much of this novel turns on the question of authorship. Ward dismisses Claire’s contributions to his early novels. But at what point does Claire’s editing give Claire an authorship claim over Ward’s work? Is the same true of Isabelle’s “editing” of her mother’s work? Discuss why or why not.