Life

in a Fishbowl - Len Vlahos

Summary & Analysis

Fifteen-year-old Jackie Stone is an introvert who prefers spending time in anonymity
online to engaging with the outside world. Then, suddenly, Jackie’s already uneasy
life is thrown into utter turmoil when her beloved dad, Jared, is diagnosed with
terminal brain cancer and given a few months to live. All Jared’s anxieties are for his
family. He knows his wife’s income won’t cover the mortgage and medical bills when
he’s gone. He works two jobs to keep his family afloat as it is, and so Jared takes the
radical decision to auction his life to the highest bidder.

Ethan Overbee, an unscrupulous, egotistical TV executive who has Jared’s eBay
listing taken down in order to secure the Stone family for his own gain: he will buy
Jared’s life and make him the star of a reality show like no other. As the whole of
America tunes in to witness Jared’s deterioration, with the family’s every move and
emotion captured on film, Jackie is on the verge of falling apart while her younger
sister, Megan, is falling in love with the idea of becoming rich and famous.

Meanwhile, the disturbed boy billionaire, Sherman Kingsborough, and Internet-
addicted nun Sister Benedict Joan, who’d originally bid on Jared, remain determined
to have an impact on his life and death. But enough is enough, thinks Jackie and,
driven by anger at the way the show is misrepresenting her family, and with the
heartfelt support of an online friend in Russia and a sympathetic gaming fanatic, she
resolves to expose the production company for what it really is, and to give her dad
the dignified death he deserves.

Analytical Questions

Before Reading
1. Consider the title, cover and strapline. What kind of book do you expect this to
be?

Love
2. ‘Jackie Stone loved her father. She loved him a lot’ (p.1). How does this opening
line establish the themes of the novel?
3. ‘Love, she figured, can make us weak-kneed and wobbly, but when it needs to, it
can make us stronger than steel’ (Deirdre, p.307). Discuss the different ways that
the strength of love is revealed in this book.

Diagnosis
4. ‘The doctor delivered this news as a matter of fact, as if she were reporting the
temperature and humidity, but Jared could see her eyes welling up, and he felt
sorry for her’ (p.6). What does Jared’s immediate reaction to his terminal
diagnosis reveal about his character?



The tumor
‘The high-grade glioblastoma multiforme tumor liked Jared Stone’s brain. It liked it a
lot. In fact, it found it delicious’ (p.6).
34. Why do you think the author personifies Jared’s tumor?
35. How does the personality of the tumor change as the novel progresses?
36. What effect does the personification have on your feelings about Jared’s
condition?

Jackie
‘The only place outside the house where Jackie felt comfortable was on the Internet …
For one thing, she loved the anonymity’ (p.10).
33. How does this early statement about Jackie’s character foreshadow the events that
unfold?
34. How well does she cope with the intrusion of the production company?

“Dad, are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, just a lot of work today.”
Jackie could tell it was a lie.” ’ (p.11)
35. How did Jackie know her dad was lying?

Money
“I need money,” he said aloud’ (p.13).
36. What do Jared’s worries about leaving his family ‘in a bad financial state’ reveal
about the sort of person he is?
‘Money. The word in this context seemed filthy’ (p.107).
37. Why does money seem filthy to Jackie at this point?
38. Can money be ‘filthy’?
39. Discuss what the need and desire for money might do to people.
40. What’s the difference between needing money and wanting it?
41. Consider ‘boy billionaire’ Sherman who has way more than he needs, and the
homeless man to whom Jackie gives her $5 (p.106).

Multiple selves
‘You could be who or what you wanted in that world, not only in the characters you
played but, in the stories, you told’ (p.20). There is sometimes a disparity between
person we are, and the version of ourselves we present to the world.
17. Why do you think that is?
18. Can you think of any examples from your own experience? Discuss in relation to
Jackie, Megan, Hazel and Max.

The Internet
19. Discuss the good and bad sides of the Internet in relation to Hazel, Max and Sister
Benedict.

Empathy
20. Discuss the nature of empathy. To what extent is it possible to understand how it
feels to be in someone else’s situation?

Motives
21. Compare and contrast what led Ethan Overbee, Hazel Huck, Sister Benedict and
Sherman Kingsborough to contact Jared. Discuss the morality of their respective
motivations.

Euthanasia
Jackie’s ‘immediate reaction was that any kind of suicide was wrong ... But her gut
reaction was different. In her heart, Jackie believed that people should be able to
make up their own minds about anything they wanted, as long as it didn’t hurt
anyone else’ (p.42–43).
22. Do you agree with this statement? Discuss the ethics of euthanasia.

Sherman
‘Who am I, he thought, to decide who should live or die?’ (p.136).
23.Why does Sherman think he can make this decision?
24. What drives his attempt to kill Jared?

The eBay listing
‘Jared didn’t know if he should laugh or cry, if he was relieved or
distraught’ (p.66).
25. Why might Jared have felt ‘relieved’ when his eBay bid was taken down? How did
you feel?

Memories
Consider the descriptions and effects of Jared’s memory loss.
26. To what extent are humans the sum of their memories?

Ethan
27. What did you think of Ethan’s comment, ‘if I were in your shoes, I’d want every
second I could have with my kids’ (p.108).
28. Why do you think he says this to Jared?

The TV Show
‘Their house was being transformed into a cruel kind of fishbowl and all they could
do was pucker and swim’ (p.115).
29. How did you feel about the attitudes and actions of the production team?
30. Would you have tried to escape the ‘fishbowl’?
31. What might you have done to make the experience less ‘cruel’ and intrusive?

‘Someone scrawls ‘Your father’s a freak!’ across Jackie’s locker’ (p.123).
32. Why would someone do that? anything ‘freakish’ about what Jared does?

Max
‘The project made her feel subversive, rebellious, and so very alive’ (p.178).
33. How important is Max and his idea to how Jackie copes?

Humor
34. What role does humor play in the novel?
35. What role can humor play in difficult situations?

Megan
36. How did you feel about Jackie’s sister, Megan?
37. Do you understand why she was worried about becoming a ‘nobody’ (p.227)?
38. Do you understand why she broke her family’s strike and betrayed her sister?
39. Are her actions inexcusable?

Siblings
‘They were gasoline and a lit match’ (p.96).
40. Discuss the relationship between siblings Jackie and Megan. Does it change
through the course of the novel?

‘He liked it a lot’ Throughout the novel, the phrase ‘s/he liked it/him/her/them a lot’
is applied to various characters.
41. Why do you think the author does this?
42. What effect does this have?

Sister Benedict
43. What was your first impression of Sister Benedict?
44. Did it change during the course of the novel?

‘The Sister went through the rest of the house to see how else she could help’ (p.240).
45. Does Sister Benedict help in any way?
46. Were you surprised by anything she says or does?

Moving Moments
47. Which two moments in the novel did you find most moving? Why?

Deidre
‘This is for you, Jared. I love you’ (Deidre, p.307).
48. Were you shocked when Deidre turned off Jared’s ventilator and smothered him?
49. What made her end her husband’s life?
50. What enabled her to end her husband’s life?
51. Do you think ‘mercy killings’ are any different from murder?

Changing Opinions
52. Has this novel changed any of your opinions about
a) reality TV shows
b) euthanasia?

Coming-of-Age
53. Can Life in a Fishbowl be considered a coming-of-age story?
54. What does Jackie learn about herself and the ways of the world during the course
of the novel?

The Ending
55. How satisfying did you find the novel’s ending?
56. How did the final paragraph make you feel?

The Title
57. What did you think of the title? Think of three alternative titles.