Publisher Description

Connie May Fowler grew up in Florida and now lives with her husband in St. Augustine. She received an M.A. in English from the University of Kansas. In addition to Sugar Cage, Connie May Fowler is the author of Before Women Had Wings and Remembering Blue. Connie May Fowler's Sugar Cage is the "engrossing tale of domestic life, civil rights and the supernatural in 1960s Florida." (Publisher's Weekly).

Back Cover

Take the mystery out of the Common Core State Standards and help your child succeed! Schools in most U.S. states have adopted Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics, raising the bar for student achievement. --What are these new learning standards, and how can you help your child succeed in today's standards-based classroom? Discover the answers inside Common Core Language Arts and Math. This parent-friendly workbook provides all the resources you need to support your child's learning at school this year. --Resources in this book include: An easy-to-understand explanation for each Common Core standard in your child's grade level, plenty of practice activities so your child can review and improve each Common Core skill, and fun extension activities for helping your child at home.

Author Biography

Connie May Fowler grew up in Florida and now lives with her
husband in St. Augustine. She received an M.A. in English from the
University of Kansas. In addition to Sugar Cage, Connie May
Fowler is the author of Before Women Had Wings and Remembering Blue.

Review

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sugar Cage is one of the most accomplished, haunting fictional debuts since Amy Tan's The Jay Luck Club.
ALA Booklist A first novel suffused with the lushness and heat of a Florida night. Fowler introduces her unusual characters one by one, letting several of them narrate this muscular, mystic, and alternately hilarious, charming, and melodramatic saga....A seductive and impressive debut.
Chicago Tribune A beautiful, taboo love story.
Kansas City Star To read Connie May Fowler's Sugar Cage is to be a child, sitting on the bottom porch steps on a hot summer evening, listening to the grownups talking....Hold quiet, save it all to sort through later, but don't miss a single word.
San Francisco Chronicle Mixing magic with touches of political realism, Connie May Fowler has written a strangely beautiful novel about love and human frailties.
The Kansas City Star Don't miss a single word.
The Washington Post Startling and beautiful...Sugar Cage is bold, honest, and intelligent.
Alice Hoffman Here is a wonderful book by a wonderful writer. Sugar Cage is a true original, filled with life on every single page.
Lee Smith Reading Sugar Cage is like falling under a powerful spell. Echoes of Zora Neale Hurston can be heard in this incantatory prose.

Review Quote

The Washington PostStartling and beautiful...Sugar Cageis bold, honest, and intelligent.

Description for Reading Group Guide

Reading Group Questions And Topics For Discussion1. Referring to her own husband, Rose tells us early in the novel, "I've never trusted him." How exactly does the issue of trust play out in Rose's life?2. What happened in Rose's childhood to make her so "afraid of night and day and everything in between"? And what caused the "sunshine walls" of her marriage to Charlie to turn so abruptly into a stifling prison?3. It is in the context of this ambivalent marriage that Connie May Fowler first introduces the paradox of her "sweet poison" metaphor, or the sugar cage. How does the idea of the sugar cage work, and how does it come to represent the arc of the novel as a whole?4. Describe the different "cages" with which each of the novel's characters must contend, and explore the individual journeys each character takes.5. By the end ofSugar Cage,do you believe any of the characters have found/will find personal freedom? Who will remain imprisoned (whether by sorrow, fear, or bigotry)? Explain.6. By the time Inez Temple dissolves the "haunting" grains of sugar at the bottom of her glass in the novel's closing paragraphs, Fowler has treated us to a remarkably expansive journey through recent American history. Many of the signature events of the last half-century stand as powerful backdrops to the events in the novel, from the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, to the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, to the grisly conflict in Vietnam. Discuss the effects of Fowler's decision to punctuate and color her fictional characters' experiences with shades of a much larger and more familiar story -- the modem American experience.7. What does Rose mean when she says she has let Charlie' "hot wind bum me to a crisp"? Standing in her cramped kitchen with Emory's letter tucked in her apron pocket, Rose invests the ordinary aroma of an apple pie with out size significance. The smell, with its all-American suggestions of "domestic peace, happy homemaking, perfect children, and all that other malarkey," starkly belies the reality of Rose's situation. What is Fowler doing here? Why does Rose feel that if she bums her pie, her life will be finished?8. Why do you think Fowler tells the story through the eyes of nine different characters? How would the novel be different if it were told only from the perspective of Rose? Emory? Inez?9. Which character would you say is the most "reliable" narrator? Why?10. What is the significance of the recurring image of the heron inSugar Cage?What is happening in each of the heron's appearances?11. What other symbols and images emerge and tellingly recur throughout Fowler's novel? Consider, for instance, the ebony jewel, Black Beauty, the 'cane fields, goldfish, and the Coquina Motel. What does each represent?12. What similarities and differences exist between the willfully enchanting magic of Soleil Marie, the mambo, and the involuntary magical visions of Inez, the self-professed descendant of a long line of "good, old-fashioned witches"? Is their Voodoo all of a piece? Do you suppose Inez will. continue to recover, in her dreams, the lessons and traditions of her ancestors?13. "It was the smell of sugar, and it was so sweet and strong it caused a picture to crawl up in my mind. It was the picture of a woman...pregnant with a rising belly." Why does it make perfect sense that Emory automatically associates sugar with conception? What is going on here? Discuss the significance of sugar in Emory's life.14. In referring to the vast Indian burial grounds of Florida, Fowler subtly evokes the dark legacy of the Native American genocide. Along with the loss of countless lives, the ancient traditions of spiritual magic and intimate communion with nature have all but disappeared in North America. The mass graves commemorate the inestimable tragedy of a heritage forever lost. Discuss how this theme dramatizes and informs the following: Soleil Marie's f

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