questions

Tonight is the monthly meeting of the GSB Partner's book club. The book I suggested, Donorboy by Brendan Halpin, was selected. Here is where it gets funny. I get an email from the chair of the club asking if I would like to lead the discussion. Without even thinking, I reply and say I'd love to.

I figured all I would need to do is a quick search on Google, copy, paste, print and presto! It would appear though that despite the press this book seems to be getting no one put together a reading guide for Donorboy.

It was actually kind of fun, so don't think I am whining. Really I am not. It is just funny that I never even thought that there wouldn't be a reading guide for this book. Here are the questions I came up with:

1. Let’s get this one out of the way first. If you didn’t know what a turducken was, what was your initial thought? Please write your answer anonymously.
2. An epistolary novel is a literary technique in which a novel is composed of diary entries, letters, and other documents. Do you feel that Donorboy works as an epistolary novel? Do you feel like you miss anything in this format? If it had been told using a more traditional narrative, how would it have been different?
3. The themes in this book are rather grim: a young girl loses the only parents she has known and is forced to live with a man she knows next to nothing about – yet many people describe laughing out loud. What role does laughter play in this book? Share some of your favorite scenes.
4. Although this is a book about mother loss, ultimately the book studies the role of father. In addition to the relationship between Ros and Sean, we see the relationship between Sean and his own father, as well as that of Sean’s gym teacher friend and his little boy. Do you think that any of these men could win father of the year award? Then again, can anyone?
5. At one point Sean admits to his friend that he is being selfish for taking Rosalind in, as he feels it is a way to add meaning to his sad life. Do you think he is being selfish? Where do you think Ros should have been sent to live?
6. There are many incompetent adults portrayed in this novel: from the school administrators to the therapist to the other parents that have no idea what their kids are up to. What do you think their role is in the novel?
7. Ros is described as an orphan, yet technically her “father” is alive. Do you think Ros is truly an orphan, or conversely do you think that Sean is truly Ros’ father?
8. The title of the book comes from a nickname Ros gives Sean, seeming to imply that Sean is the main character, yet Ros certainly seems to have an equally important role. Why do you think Halpin chose this title? Which of these two characters do you feel undergoes the greatest change by the end of the book?
9. It would probably be impossible to discuss this book without mentioning the l-word. In addition to Ros’ mothers being lesbians, Ros also has some questions about her own sexual identity. Do you think this book portrays homosexuality fairly?
10. Fast-forward 5 years. What do you think Ros is like? What about Sean? Do you think their relationship improves, or stays the same?

Of course the printer decided it only wanted to print one copy of my spiffy looking Donorboy Reading Guide. It thinks it is out of ink again. It can't be. And thanks to the new technology when it thinks it is out of ink in won't print.

I ended up walking over to Kinko's. Amazingly I didn't have a bad experience. My blood pressure always rises though a little when I go in there. You never know if you are going to make it out alive.

I'll let you know how it goes.