Partita

The book describes a partita as “a composition made of a lot of parts with different paces and moods.” Why do you think the author chose this title? Was it fitting?

How familiar are you with classical music? Were you able to connect the chapter titles to the events within them? Did your knowledge, or lack thereof, affect your enjoyment of the many sections discussing Livia’s music?

What role do music and art play in your life? What role do they play in society as a whole? Why do we need them?

The novel traces Livia’s college life and then follows her in middle age, 30 years later. Did one timeline grab you more than the other?

How does love differ in youth and later in life? How does Livia’s story reflect this difference?

The love between a mother and a child is another fundamental kind of love, and one that Livia never receives. How does her relationship with her mother impact her?

Livia’s life is broken apart, and everything she’d dreamed of is taken away from her. How does she respond? In what ways does she become a new, different person? In what ways does she stay the same?

What did you feel toward Livia? Did you admire her? Pity her? Like or dislike her? How did your feelings shift over the course of the novel?

Kingsolver chose a quote from Toni Morrison as the epigraph to Partita: “Sometimes you don’t survive whole, you just survive in part. But the grandeur of life is that attempt.” Why is this a fitting quote for the novel?