1. Mme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen opens with Sophie Bensimon, Sarah’s mother, visiting her family’s monument in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, reflecting with sadness on the accomplishments of those buried there -- not only the famous artists but the Jewish cultural elite of Paris and her own family -- and fearful of what is to come. Reread the opening scene once you’ve finished the book. Why do you think Taylor begins the novel in this way?

2. Which of the three women -- Jeanne, Sarah, Marie -- do you connect with the most? Why? On the other hand, is there a character you felt particularly distant from or did not like?

3. In Jeanne Proust’s diary, we learn of the day-to-day details of life in the Proust household. And throughout the novel, there are tender domestic moments (Sarah builds a snowman for Max) and cherished memories (Marie tells us of the cottage summers of her youth). Discuss the significance of domestic life and remembering the small details of one’s past. Also, consider how this relates to telling the “bigger” stories, such as those about the Holocaust.

4. The events of this novel take place over more than a century, stretching from Madame Proust’s diary entries of 1890 to Marie’s thoughts just before the end of the 20th century. How did this affect you as a reader? Were you able to make thematic connections between the three main narratives with ease, or was it difficult to do so?

5. Why does Sarah destroy her kitchen?

6. In her diary, Madame Proust creates a portrait of herself as Marcel’s mother, and often recognizes that her attentions and expectations might be too much for her son. What do you think of Jeanne Proust as a mother? Is she nurturing? Stifling? A little of both?

7. Whereas Marie Prévost and Madame Proust come to us in their own words, Sarah’s story is told in the third person. Why do you think Taylor used this approach? Did you find it harder to understand Sarah’s character as a result? Or easier?

8. Discuss the role of “outsiders” in Mme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen.

9. At the end of the novel, Marie makes a discovery: “I have found the cure for heartbreak. It is literature.” She also realizes that the time has come to move from translation to writing fiction, as Marcel Proust did. Are there ways in which all great literature must have great emotion at its heart? Consider the importance of writing in this novel -- not only for Marie, but for the other characters as well.

10. Sarah’s efforts to adapt French cuisine to the kosher kitchen can be seen as a way of trying to reconcile her French and Jewish heritages. Similarly, Jeanne Proust is Jewish but has married into a Catholic family, and her outsider status becomes particularly apparent when her opinions on the Dreyfus Affair differ from her husband’s. How successful are these women at coming to terms with their ancestries? What parallels and differences do you see between Marie’s work and life in bilingual Montreal and the other women’s experiences?

11. Why isn’t Sarah able to accept that Max is gay? Compare her reaction to Jeanne Proust’s view of Marcel’s sexuality and lifestyle. And how do you think Marie feels about Max at the end of the novel, after his visit to Montreal?

12. As Marie translates Madame Proust’s diary, she regularly skips entries that she considers uninteresting or less eventful. This is in addition to her work as a translator, which also distances us from Jeanne Proust’s original French entries. Considering that Marie originally wanted to study Marcel Proust’s papers but couldn’t get access, did you ever have the sense that she wasn’t providing an “honest” rendering of his mother’s diary?

13. How complete of a character is Jeanne Proust in this novel? Are there aspects of her life that you would like to know more about?

14. Discuss the portrayals of the male characters in Mme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen.

15. In weaving together three different narratives, Kate Taylor has used a very fluid style -- voices switch mid-page, and there are no formal chapters, only segments of stories and diary entries. Discuss the overall structure of this novel. How did affect your reading process? Is there one story you would consider to be the “backbone” of the book, or are they inseparable for you?

16. Despite the presence of historical figures such as Marcel and Jeanne Proust, Mme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen is a work of fiction -- as are the excerpts from Madame Proust’s diary. In interviews and articles, Kate Taylor has addressed the issue of fictionalizing history, and states in her acknowledgements that she “often makes free with historic and geographic fact” (for example, some dates and locations have been moved to fit with her story). What is a novelist’s responsibility to historical accuracy? Is it necessarily true that all historical fiction involves manipulating the available facts -- in order to tell the larger story?

17. Taylor opens this novel with a quote from Jean Anouilh: “Life is very nice, but it has no shape. The object of art is actually to give it some…” Discuss how Taylor gives her characters’ lives “shape” in this novel. In a more general sense, how do life and writing interact in your own experience? Have you ever kept a diary, and if so, why?

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