A Season in Lights – Book Club Questions

Reading A Season in Lights in your bookclub? These questions will encourage an engaging discussion!

  • Both Cammie and Tom have a complex relationship with their sibling and their mother. How did these family dynamics affect the way each character pursued their artistic career?
  • At the end of ACT II, Cammie makes a decision to prioritize her family over her dancing dreams. Conversely, Tom distances himself from his family. Do you think they each made the right choice? Why, or why not?
  • Cammie never tells anybody about her depression. Why do you suppose that is? Do you think she would be better off seeking help: from friends, family or professionals? Or has she learned to manage it on her own?
  • Toward the end of the story, both Cammie and Tom (and even Charles to a lesser degree) realize that their best moment as a performer went unappreciated at the time. Looking back on your own life, what memories do you have that parallel these experiences?
  • Did you see any parallels between the two diseases – AIDS and COVID-19 – in the story? How did their experiences with these diseases change the characters?
  • When Cammie’s Broadway show is canceled, she is devastated and it is hard for her to see the big picture of the Coronavirus outbreak. How would you have felt in her shoes, losing something that had been so important to you?
  • The story ends during the very early days of the COVID pandemic. In reading it, did it remind you of how you felt at that time? How has your perspective changed since those early days?
  • Where do you think Tom went at the end?

Exile Book Club Questions

Reading The Exile in your book club? These questions will encourage an engaging discussion!

  • Much of the racism and sexism Leila faces is so subtle she can’t even talk about it. Sometimes she looks the other way for the sake of her career. What are some ways you’ve seen this dynamic play out with the people in your own life?
  • Did reading this book give you any new insight into the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-2008? Did anything surprise you about it?
  • Did you come away with any new thoughts or feelings on deportation as a threat hanging over immigrants in America, particularly Hispanic Americans? Did it surprise you how quickly Leila’s status unraveled?
  • In Chapter 10, Leila forges a document so a family can stay in their home. Do you think what she did was right or wrong?
  • Ashford and his mother have completely different memories of the night he saved her life. Why do you think Samantha remembers it so differently?
  • Do you think Ashford and his mother will ever reconcile?
  • During and after the uprising in Colombia, do you see Manny as a coward or a hero? Why?
  • What do you think caused Paulo’s relentless vendetta against Manny and Leila?
  • What do you think was San Juan el Bautista’s true motive for his actions at the end?
  • Do you think Leila could have done more to be re-united with her daughter?
  • Ashford is an atypical hero. What were some examples you saw of his heroism? When might he have done more?

Love of Fiinished Years – Book Club Questions

Reading Love of Finished Years in your book club? These questions will encourage an engaging discussion!

  • How has the immigrant experience changed from the 1910s compared with today? In what ways is it similar?
  • In what ways does Elsa resist the expectations that are placed on her: by her parents, by society, by herself?
  • How does Elsa’s experience as an uneducated immigrant in America differ from Sonya’s? Why?
  • Was the women’s general strike a success? What can we learn today from the women in the garment industry in the 1910s?
  • Elsa experienced two drastic changes, first moving from Germany to the United States, and later moving from the Lower East Side to the high society of Long Island. How did these changes prepare her for what was to come? Have you ever experienced a change so extreme and if so, how did that change you as a person?
  • What changes and why with the dynamic between Dafne, Elsa and Glenn when they move to Manhattan?
  • What do you think motivated Dafne to cheat on Glenn? Did she simply get carried away, or was something deeper going on?
  • What allows Elsa to come to terms with her feelings for Glenn? If she hadn’t been through the earlier experiences, do you think she would have had the courage to act on those feelings?
  • Do you think the United States was right to join World War One? Why or why not?
  • What do you think it would have been like to be an ethnic German living in America during either of the World Wars?
  • What inspired Glenn to save Hal’s life, even after he had been betrayed by him? Would you have acted the same way in that situation?
  • How have the expectations of their families and society changed for Elsa and Glenn after the war? How has his injury changed both of their idea of what’s most important?
  • Do you think this is a timely read? Does it reflect some of the issues that immigrants are currently experiencing?