Jackpot Summer

Description

After the Jacobson siblings win a life-changing fortune in the lottery, they assume their messy lives will transform into sleek, storybook perfection–but they couldn’t be more wrong.
 
The four Jacobson children were raised to respect the value of a dollar. Their mother reused tea bags and refused to pay retail; their father taught them to budget before he taught them to ride a bike. And yet, now that they’re adults, their financial lives are in disarray.
 
The siblings reunite when their newly widowed father puts their Jersey Shore beach house on the market. Packing up childhood memories isn’t easy, especially when there’s other drama brewing. Matthew is miserable at his corporate law job and wishes he had more time with his son; Laura’s marriage is imploding in spectacular fashion; Sophie’s art career is stalled while her boyfriend’s is on the rise; and Noah’s total failure to launch has him doing tech repair for pennies.
 
When Noah sees an ad for a Powerball drawing, he and his sisters go in on tickets while their brother Matthew passes.  All hell breaks loose when one of the tickets is a winner and three of the four Jacobsons become overnight millionaires. Without their mother’s guidance, and with their father busy playing pickleball in a Florida retirement village, the once close-knit siblings search for comfort in shiny new toys instead of each other.
 
It’s not long before the Jacobsons start to realize that they’ll never feel rich unless they can pull their family back together.
 “Funny, wise, and heart tugging, Jackpot Summer mines every nuance of familial relationships. It left me with a renewed reverence for what matters and a huge smile on my face.”—Annabel MonaghanElyssa Friedland is the acclaimed author of Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, The Floating Feldmans, The Intermission, and Love and Miss Communication. Elyssa is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School and currently teaches novel writing at Yale. She lives with her husband and three children in New York City, the best place on earth.Reader’s Guide
Jackpot Summer by Elyssa Friedland
Discussion Questions:

1.   Which sibling in the Jacobson family do you relate to the most and why?
2.   Did any of the Jacobsons remind you of someone in your own family?

3.   Which sibling do you think had the best attitude toward winning the lottery?

4.   How did this novel make you think about the role money management plays in marriage and or romantic relationships? Where did you
notice money playing an important part in the relationships of these characters?

5.   What did you think about Matthew’s choice not to buy a lottery ticket? Did you think his siblings should have cut Matthew in right away?
Why or why not?

6.   Have you ever bought a lottery ticket? How would you use the money if you won?

7.   How did Leo change throughout the book? What did you think of his parenting choices?

8.   Do you think children are always “kids” when it comes to their parents? If so, is that a good or a bad thing?

9.   Sophie thought having more time to work on her art would be beneficial, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. Did that surprise
you?

10. Sophie’s art show turns into an epic disaster, thanks to cancel culture and online hate. Did you anticipate the negative reaction to her show? What do you think about cancel culture generally?

11.  Matthew is afraid to tell Beth how much he hates his job. Could you understand his reasons? How would things have played out differently if he had been honest with his wife and family?

12. What did you think of Laura and Doug’s marriage? Do you think she forgave him too easily?

13. Matthew felt caught between his siblings and his wife. Did you sympathize with him? How do you think he handled it?

14. After reading Jackpot Summer, how do you think you might change if you suddenly had a financial windfall?

15. LBI is so special to the entire Jacobson family. Does your family have a place—maybe a house or a vacation spot—that is particularly special to you?

16. Beth and Matthew and Doug and Laura have very different parenting styles. Do you think family members are inherently judgmental of the way their relatives raise their children?

17. How do you imagine the story would have played out differently if Sylvia Jacobson was still alive?

18. Do you think the Jacobson siblings are going to be closer or less close in five years?

19. What six numbers would you pick for the Powerball?US

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