THE ASHTRAYS ARE FULL
AND THE GLASSES ARE EMPTY
Raised amid great wealth and privilege, Sara Wiborg Murphy rejects her family’s traditional values to build a golden life of creativity and beauty amid the Lost Generation in France.
This lush historical novel follows Sara from New York to Paris and Antibes and back again. Wherever she lands, her flair for celebrating life and the people around her makes her a doyenne of the bohemian elite.
With her husband, Gerald, she befriends such literary and artistic icons as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Dorothy Parker. But when tragedy strikes her family not once but twice, she must learn to accept that perhaps a larger hand holds the keys to her fate.
Over time, Sara’s strength and resilience allow her to find a new equilibrium—long after the parties have ended. The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty follows Sara through her very modern life to reveal how heartbreak can be healed by faith, unconditional love, and a creative mind.
“Kirsten Mickelwait writes down to the very bone of the Lost Generation's artists, writers, and families, revealing a past that was not archaic but a glittering guide to today.
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“Weaving stunningly intricate details with a grandiose sweep, Mickelwait provides a jewel box of a book illustrating that none of us invented the fight for a singular creative life.
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“The remarkable guide, Sara Murphy, hooked me from the first page, and I've mourned her since turning the last. I loved this book.”
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Randy Susan Meyers, international bestselling author of
The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone
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“The Ashtrays are Full and the Glasses are Empty transports readers back to the Paris and Côte d’Azur of the 1920s, slipping us into the luxury- and adventure-filled life of Sara and Gerald Murphy. Both quickly become dear to us, but it is Sara—channeling her creativity into making life beautiful for others—who captures our hearts.
“When personal tragedy and history bring an end to this charmed life, we grieve along with Sara and Gerald as they struggle to find acceptance and peace. This novel will inspire, entertain, and move you in equal measure.”
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Anne Matlack Evans, author of
The Light Through the Branches
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BOOK GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Sara’s rarified upbringing prepared her to become a traditional, aristocratic wife, and yet she craved a very different kind of marriage and life. What do you think motivated her to choose a different course from the one expected of her? Do you think she was fully aware of the risks and rewards of the new life she chose with Gerald?
2. In Paris, Sara and Gerald become part of a deeply creative and neurotic bohemian community. How were they like, or different from, their other expatriate friends?
3. Sara was enchanted with the whimsy and creativity of her new world. How would you have liked to live during that period?
4. Which among their friends would you have enjoyed? Which would you have avoided? In particular, the Fitzgeralds test Sara’s patience and friendship. Would you have stayed friends with them over the years?
5. What do you think are the greatest strengths of the Murphys’ marriage? The greatest challenges?
6. The Murphy marriage is complicated by Gerald’s gender identity issues. How do you feel about the way Sara handled that problem? What would you have done in her place?
7. Another challenge was Gerald’s mood swings, which today would probably be diagnosed as bipolar disorder. How did you feel about Gerald’s character: sympathetic or frustrating?
8. One of the things that distinguished the Murphys from their friends was their engagement as parents—unusual for that period, especially for the upper classes. How did you feel about Sara and Gerald as parents?
9. Between the 1929 stock market crash and her personal tragic losses, Sara’s golden life crumbles within a few years. This causes her to question God and her own spiritual outlook. What would your own response have been to such calamitous events? How would it change the way you thought about life?
10. Weighing the extreme fortune and misfortune in Sara’s life, and how she dealt with them, do you think she had a good life?