Here are some helpful Book Club discussion questions, information and reviews for CLEAVED – A story of loss legs and finding family, a memoir by JANE CAFARELLA
Written with compassion and humour CLEAVED is an illuminating story about losing and finding family and growing up “different”.
Available as PDF on this site or a print version from Amazon and all usual outlets CLEAVED is
- A sister story – of two little girls “cleaved” from each other from birth
- An immigration story – from the tiny island of Salina, Italy, in the 1920s during the first Italian diaspora
- A family estrangement story – a family torn apart by an explosive discovery
- A disability story of resilience and acceptance
- A story about the healing power of music
- A Melbourne story – beginning in 1950s to the present day
- A modern tragedy and a triumph
- Scroll down for Book Club discussion questions and more information
- Read reviews on The ABC Book Club Facebook page
- Read the ***** Goodreads review by Hazel Edwards here
Listen to Jane talking to Hilary Harper for Life Matters:
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/lifematters/i-lost-my-sister-in-my-parent-s-divorce/103878978
Here’s what readers like you are saying about CLEAVED
I just finished it. I’m in bits. Such a beautiful story. Forgiveness, the connections, devoid of sentimentality, yet the humanity – the flawed humans – have touched me. Thank you for a great read!
Susie Penrice Tyrie, Singapore
I have just finished reading your book. Beautifully written… I loved the ending. It was a story of forgiveness. Of course I am crying as I write this note. My heart has been deeply touched by your story.
Eileen Dieleson, Perth, Western Australia
I practically inhaled your book – I found it such a fascinating story, beautifully written. Thank you to you and Juliana for sharing so generously and openly.
Jane Haley, Hobart, Tasmania
I am transfixed. I think it might reach into my heart. I can’t put it down.
Marie McNamara, Newstead
Shamefully, I’ve been lying around all day finishing it, cause I couldn’t put it down.
Suzanne Walshe, Maldon
…an incredible story. Beautifully written, … Personally, I found it hard to put down…
Bronnie Dean, Harcourt
…a courageous search for a truth that reads like a compelling mystery.
Angela Ryan, South Melbourne
I cried reading it today. I think it’s just beautiful writing and honesty. It was such a joy to read.
Bradley Dawson, Castlemaine
An intriguing family story – read it in two days.
Susanne Ellis, Occupational Therapist, Hand, Lymphoedema and Wound Clinics, Bendigo Health.
THE STORY
CLEAVED is the story of Jane and her sister Julie, foot soldiers in the family war, each cleaved to a different parent from birth – and of the shocking betrayal that blows Jane apart from the rest of the family for decades.
It’s also a story of resilience, a unique account of growing up with Milroy’s Disease, a rare genetic form of the progressive and incurable swelling disease lymphoedema – resulting in Jane’s right leg being a perfectly proportioned bigger version of her left.
There’s no cure and no name for it, so it’s largely ignored. “Just tell them you were born that way,” Mum says, when she is taunted at school.
Jane’s leg problem is secondary to the bigger family drama of family estrangement. The situation is normal even if Jane isn’t.
The story begins in 1970s Melbourne, after the family’s emotional cleaving has become physical and Jane and her mother have moved to a small flat – leaving Dad and her rebellious sister Julie in the family home.
It’s 17-year-old Jane’s job to ferry messages between the warring households.
Alone in the flat on a wintery Saturday night, Mum is once again telling Jane how her sister hates her – recounting how Julie severed the top of Jane’s finger when she was a baby.
But Jane isn’t listening. She knows all these stories by heart.
She takes up the story, going back to when the cleaving first begins, and how she becomes Mum’s confidant and Julie’s enemy, and the moment that cleaves Jane from the rest of the family for decades.
Over the years, Jane tries to replace her lost family with serial marriage, while undergoing pioneering surgeries to reduce her expanding leg.
Eventually, she becomes a journalist and cartoonist and creates a perfect family of her own – so perfect she even writes a weekly column about it in Melbourne’s Age newspaper.
But the old family comes back when after 21 years, at Mum’s insistence, Jane reunites with Julie – now Juliana.
“They got the wrong ones. You’re like Dad,” Juliana says when they finally meet.
And so begins the questioning, the unravelling and the comparing of events and stories; of tender and fraught reunions and partings between Jane and her father and sister, until Jane finally puts the pieces of the puzzle together, examining everyone’s part in the family tragedy, including her own.
Cleaved is a coming-of-age story, a story of forgiveness and compassion and the healing power of music – a family tragedy and a triumph, and one which reader’s love.
$1 from every $3.99 purchase goes to the USA-based leading organisation for lymphatic diseases the Lymphatic Education and Research Network (LE&RN). Today 250 million people worldwide suffer from lymphatic disease, which is still widely misunderstood.
HAVING TROUBLE DOWNLOADING? Email me and I’ll sort it promptly! – jane.cafarella@gmail.com.
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- How did you feel when you finished the book?
- Did you feel satisfied with the ending?
- What did you think of the writing?
- Did you relate to Jane as the main character? If so, why?
- Discuss the dual meaning of the word Cleaved and how it fits with the book. How does Cleaved explore the theme of estrangement?
- Why do you think family was so important to Jane?
- Why do you think everyone ignored Jane’s “big leg”. Do you agree with Jane’s conclusion? (p.197)
- Do you agree with Juliana when she said, “They got the wrong ones”? (p.126)
- How would you describe Jane’s relationship with Mum?
- Did you agree with Mum that Jane was “very well adjusted?”
- How would you describe Juliana’s relationship with Dad?
- Which sister was better off? Jane with Mum or Juliana with Dad?
- What did you think about the relationship between the sisters? Did it make your reflect on your own relationships with your siblings?
- Do you agree with Dad’s view of forgiveness? (p.188)
- Do you agree with Dad’s view of the truth? How does this relate to, or inform, the writing of memoir? (p.182)
- Did you know anything about lymphoedema before reading the book? How did the book inform your view of people suffering from deformity?
- Discuss the role that music plays throughout the book, and in bringing the sisters together.
- In the end, the Jane uncovers some family secrets and finds answers to questions that have haunted her from childhood. Did you relate to this?
- What was your favourite scene?
- Which part of the story moved you most?
- What part was the most surprising?
- Which part made you laugh?
- Would you recommend this book? If so, to whom?
Contact Jane here (email) if you’d like her to come and speak at your Book Club in person (Melbourne) or via zoom?