1. A. Manette Ansay begins her story with a quote from Chekhov: "If you fear loneliness, then marriage is not for you." Why has she chosen this particular epigraph? Identify moments in the novel in which you hear echoes of this quote.

2. Midnight Champagne is organized around chapter headings that identify key moments in a traditional wedding celebration: Ceremony, Reception, etc. Discuss the ways in which these divisions function in terms of both plot and theme.

3. The narrator moves from one point of view to another. How would Midnight Champagne be different if Ansay had written it in first person rather than in third person omniscient? Through which character's point of view did you feel most connected with the events? Though the novel istold from multiple perspectives, do you feel that the story "belongs" to one character or set of characters more than another?

4. The opening chapter of Midnight Champagne establishes what appear to be two unrelated stories: the story of April and Caleb's wedding, and the story of an anonymous married couple at the Hideaway Lodge. At what point do these two stories begin to intersect? Why does Ansay include them together in a single novel?

5. The subject of Midnight Champagne is a wedding, yet, ironically, Ansay lets the actual exchange of rings occur off-stage. Why do you think she makes this choice? Where are other places where, at key moments, she shifts to a parallel scene?

6. The ghost of the red-dressed Gretel Fame haunts the Hideaway Lodge. What is her role in this story? What other kinds of hauntings occur throughout the book?

7. Hilda Liesgang's penny is only one in a series of recurring images. Can you identify others? Have any taken on new meaning(s) by the end of the novel?

8. Discuss the parallels between Barney and the man from suite thirty-three; April and the woman from suite thirty-three; Mary Fran and Hilda. What is the effect of these mirrored stories on the book as a whole?

9. Why do you think April withholds the details of her relationship with Barney, not just from her family, but from Caleb as well? What is the effect of her revelation on Caleb? On their relationship?

10. Why do you think Ansay chose to include several children's points of view? How will Stanley and Lacey look back on this night?

11. Ansay begins the novel by writing, "The fields are the featureless white of amnesia. Fenceposts and windbreaks divide them like the clean lines of desire." What role does the blizzard play in Midnight Champagne? How does the Midwestern landscape reflect the internal landscape of these characters' hearts and minds?

12. The Chicago Tribune, in a review of Midnight Champagne, describes it as 'a lovely evocation of one of the greatest human mysteries: romantic love and the desire to connect in what many would argue is an outdated institution.' Do you think Midnight Champagne makes this argument? What, in your opinion, is the novel really about?