The Fairfax
Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, April 12th at 7
p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our April book, The
Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez.
Discussion
questions, author interview and reviews are attached.
Here are some
links for additional background and information:
Coming up, we
have the following books to look forward to reading:
Thurs. May 10th Hero
of the Empire: The Boer War, A Daring Escape and the Making of Winston
Churchill by Candice Millard
Thurs. June
14th Pond by
Claire-Louise Bennett
Thanks for
reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.
Beth Bailey-Gates
Friends of
the Fairfax Library
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.
You could say that the shadow of Garcia Márquez's magic realism
still hangs over Latin American literature. Vásquez, a fellow Colombian, has
said that he finds the idea of Latin America as a magical and marvellous place
absurd. How did you respond to his realist style of writing?
2.
Did you find the novel shocking? Why or why not?
3. Vásquez has said
that he considers this novel to be autobiographical, not in the sense that
these things happened to him, but in the sense that they are things he
witnessed. Is this a useful way to think about fiction written about the recent
past?
4. Is
it possible for anyone to escape the repercussions of a drug culture? Is drug
smuggling a political or economic issue?
5. The novel opens with a hippopotamus. What does it represent for
you?
