Memoir Mentors Book Club: Confessions of a Fairy's Daughter

In the Memoir Mentors Book Club, we read memoirs with a memoirist's eye, looking for things that we could use in our writing or things we want to avoid.

We will be discussing Confessions of a Fairy's Daughter by Alison Wearing.

Alison Wearing led a largely carefree childhood until she learned, at the age of 12, that her family was a little more complex than she had realized. Sure her father had always been unusual compared to the other dads in the neighbourhood: he loved to bake croissants, wear silk pyjamas around the house, and skip down the street singing songs from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. But when he came out of the closet in the 1970s, when homosexuality was still a cardinal taboo, it was a shock to everyone in the quiet community of Peterborough, Ontario—especially to his wife and three children.

Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter is also the story of “coming out” as the daughter of a gay father. Already wrestling with an adolescent’s search for identity when her father came out of the closet, Alison promptly “went in,” concealing his sexual orientation from her friends and spinning extravagant stories about all of the “great straight things” they did together. Over time, Alison came to see that life with her father was surprisingly interesting and entertaining, even oddly inspiring, and in fact, there was nothing to hide.

Questions we'll discuss:

• What was the theme of the book? Did the author stay true to this theme or were there too many / not enough interest points to support the theme?
• Were there any stories or sections that took away from the main plot or distracted you?
• Is the story plot-driven, moving briskly from event to event? Or is it character-driven, moving more slowly, delving into characters' inner-lives?
• What is the story’s central conflict—character vs. character...vs. society...or vs. nature (external)? Or an emotional struggle within the character (internal)? How does the conflict create tension?
• Is the plot chronological? Or does it veer back and forth between past and present?
• Do any characters change or grow by the end of the story? Do they come to view the world and their relationship to it differently?
• Share your favorite quote(s) and why you felt it was noteworthy.
• Would you be compelled to keep reading if this were not a book club assignment?
• What did you think of the book’s length?
• Were there any surprises? Were they effective?
• Was the point of view and character voice consistent?
• What were the major strengths and weaknesses of the book?
• Do you find the narrator(s) and other characters likable? Believable?
  Of all the people described in the book, who did you most relate to or empathize with, and why?
• Were there any inconsistencies that bothered you?
• How honest do you think the author was being?
• What gaps do you wish the author had filled in? Were there points where you thought she shared too much?
• Is the ending a surprise or predictable? Does the end unfold naturally? Or is it forced, heavy handed, or manipulative? Is the ending satisfying, or would you prefer a different ending?
• Is there anything about this book that you want to emulate in your own writing?
• Is there anything that you want to avoid in your own writing?

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