4. Even when their mother, Daisy, was still alive, a pattern had started to develop of the girls being shunted off to the care of others in part so they could have proper shelter and sustenance. The pattern of course accelerated after Daisy’s death. What changes have taken place with respect to safety nets in our society to make it less likely that such patterns of neglect and displacement can occur in a child’s life? Have any informal safety nets that were once routinely provided by family and community in the early twentieth century disappeared from today’s society? Discuss the drawbacks and benefits of the way things were then and the way they are now.

5. Just like Marcia Willard, her counterpart in the novel, Powell attended school only intermittently during her early years. Yet she went on to work her way through college and to support herself throughout her adult life as a writer. No doubt she possessed uncommon talent and demonstrated rare perseverance. But she also grew up in an era when reading and literature were central to the culture. Are the chances less or greater that a child born today with natural gifts and environmental circumstances similar to Marcia’s will grow up to be a “success”? Would a child with Marcia’s storytelling talents be as likely to become a writer today? If not, what other outlets might she pursue for her talents?

6. What are your feelings toward Harry Willard? Is he truly well intended or just a charismatic phony who sets out to take advantage of people? Do you know any Harry Willards? Discuss how well Powell captures this type of person. Also, discuss the balance Powell has to strike to portray Harry through the eyes of his loving daughters while at the same time presenting him to the reader as a fully formed adult character.

7. In her famous diaries, Powell wrote of My Home Is Far Away: “My first feeling was one of queasiness over the initial establishment of a distinctly autobiographical flavor, but after a while the characters become wholly fictional, increasingly round and with the full reality that only created characters have.” What are some of the hallmarks of the art of novel writing exemplified by My Home Is Far Away but typically missing from memoirs? When a book, such as a memoir, is labeled as nonfiction, how “true” do you think it should be? What genre do you prefer: the memoir, where the writer is supposed to be as factually accurate as possible, or the novel based on personal experience, where the author is at liberty to invent, alter, or delete facts for the sake of art and the achievement of a higher or more universal truth?

8. When Scribner’s first published My Home Is Far Away in 1944 it promoted the book with an advertisement that read:

The scene is Ohio in the early 1900s; the main characters are the members of the happy-go-lucky Willard family — always on the move, always seeking the home that is always far away. You’ll laugh with the Willards and sympathize with them in their moments of tragedy. They’re a family you’ll like — especially Marcia, the “middle one.” Meet them today. You’ll be glad you did.