Book Clubs that Travel: Sisters of the Undertow

Guest post by Johnnie Bernhard

Hello Readers!

Thank you for joining me. I’m a traditionally published author of Fiction, stories that delve into the secret places of the characters’ hearts as they explore their place within their family, as well in the world.  

SISTERS OF THE UNDERTOW is my third novel. It has multiple settings: Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Copenhagen. Yes, Copenhagen. I love taking readers on trips, especially to places I’ve had the joy of experiencing. There’s always something to learn about a new culture. 

I visited Copenhagen several years ago and was struck by the image of the “Little Mermaid”statue located by the shore of the “Langelinie” cruise harbor in the old port district of Nyhavn. The statue of the mermaid is only four feet tall, but her story and admirers endure through the centuries. Why? I believe it is because of the immense love the Little Mermaid held within her heart. She was brave, despite terrible disappointments in her life. 

You may remember the original story written by Hans Christian Anderson, a Denmark citizen of the ninetieth century.  His stories are written for children; however, they are much more complex when read through an adult’s eye and mind. Below the surface, Anderson’s THE LITTLE MERMAID is lyrical, spiritual, and yes, worth rereading over and over again for its eternal message–what appears on the surface to be very small and weak is often misjudged. It is the very soul of an individual that makes a person larger than life.

In rereading Anderson’s story as an adult, I was moved by its themes of lost love, physical handicaps, sibling rivalry, elitism, and endurance. It was the inspiration for writing SISTERS OF THE UNDERTOW. 

It is the novel based on the complexities of sibling rivalry and fate when two sisters, born sixteen months apart, one an Olympian idea of perfection, and the other, a preemie with cognitive and physical disabilities, chose different paths in life.  They discover luck is not a matter of fate but of choices made. It is a difficult discovery to make late in life. 

Physically and mentally gifted, Kim is a member of an elite scholastic group, The Blue Birds.  This sets a benchmark for her, as she judges herself and others by “blue-bird” characteristics.  She becomes self-absorbed and escapes through books, a coping mechanism she develops as a child when frustrated by her special needs sister.  Choosing a career as a librarian, Kim manages a large downtown branch, where her patrons are the homeless and disenfranchised.  Confused by this twist of fate, Kim begins questioning the choices she’s made, including the fragmented relationship with her sister, Kathy Renee.  

Readers, we’ll travel to Houston, Texas in the Seventies to learn all about public education in the Lone Star State. The two sisters will have very different stories in their lives, as they navigate adolescents and adulthood.

Each sister is challenged by failed relationships, health issues, and ultimately, a life and death decision, when Hurricane Harvey delivers a catastrophic flood to Houston.  

The novel reaches its climatic ending with Hurricane Harvey, a devastating Category 4 hurricane that made landfall on Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. Harvey delivered rainfall-triggered flooding in the Houston metropolitan area and Southeast Texas. People were stranded in their cars and homes for days in the rising flood water. 

Many of you may remember the heart wrenching images from national news outlets of volunteers from Louisiana, The Cajun Navy, who came by the hundreds to rescue pets and their owners. I was so moved by their fearless act for humanity, I dedicated the book to this organization, as well as animal shelters, that took in many abandoned animals during the hurricane. 

Although my novel was published in late February 2020, just as the world went into Covid Lockdown, I was fortunate to connect with readers through Facebook Book Clubs and Zoom events. I was also able to do a TEDx talk, where I discuss the themes of my novels. 

Here is a list of questions I answered in the TEDx talk. Many book clubs have found them helpful when exploring SISTERS OF THE UNDERTOW.

1. In the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to the narrator, Kimberly Ann. Explain how she describes the differences between the two sisters.  Is it possible to love and hate someone at the same time?  

2. How does Sandy change after her first miscarriage? In what ways does it affect her marriage to David?

3. What is the role of Granny in the novel? How does it change over time?

4. Describe the differences between The Blue Birds and The Ravens.  Explain the positive and negative effects of ability grouping. 

5. There is a role reversal between the sisters the night of the junior high dance.  Explain this.  How does this set a standard throughout the novel?  

6. What are the differences between Ben and Kyle?

7. Explain how Lionel could be viewed as Kim’s conscious.

8. Kim is often aloof in her relationship with other adults, yet she is very loving as a pet owner.  Explain.

9. Contrast and compare the relationship Kim had with Brian and Wayne-O.

10. How is water symbolized in the novel?

11. What is the issue between Kim and Kathy?  Religious beliefs?  Sibling rivalry?

12. Kim begins to change in Part III of the novel. Explain how her new job at the downtown Houston library affects her.  

13. What is meant by the repetition of lucky and unlucky throughout the novel?

14. Explain how Hurricane Harvey may be viewed as a “baptism” for Kim.  

Thank you for joining me today. Let’s stay connected through social media! You can also visit me at my website, www.johnniebernhardauthor.com

Happy Reading!

A former teacher and journalist, Johnnie Bernhard is passionate about reading and writing.  A Good Girl (2017) was shortlisted in the 2015 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Writing Competition.  The novel was shortlisted in the 2017 Kindle Book Award for Literary Fiction, a nominee for the 2018 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, and shortlisted by the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction of the Year Award. Johnnie’s second novel, How We Came to Be (2018) was a finalist in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition.  It is the recipient of the Summerlee Book Prize, HM by the Center for History and Culture at Lamar University. Her third novel, Sisters of the Undertow (2020) was an official selection for the 2020 International Pulpwood Queens Book Club and shortlisted in the Kindle Book Awards for literary fiction. It received First Place in the Press Women of Texas Communications Contest. Johnnie was chosen as a selected speaker in the 2020 TEDx Fearless Women Series. She also supports young writers in public schools through the Letters About Literature program with the Texas Center for the Book and with the Write for Mississippi program.  In 2021, she was named a teaching artist with Gemini Ink Writing Arts Center and the national TAP Summer Institute 2021.