BOOKS
MEETING INFORMATION
Next Meeting: February 24th
Time: 7:00-8:00 P.M.
Where: Adult Fiction, can meet in alley next to Coldwater weather permitting
FEBRUARY
The Cold Millions
Jess Walter
Set against the backdrop of early twentieth-century America, The Cold Millions follows the Dolans, who jump freight rains and line up for work at crooked job agencies. Both brothers have their own dreams and aspirations.
When they meet Ursula the Great, a Vaudeville singer, they are introduced to a mining magnate determined to keep his wealth and his hold on Ursula. Dubious of his brother's idealism, Rye, the younger brother, finds himself drawn to activist and feminist, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. A storm is coming, and Rye will soon be forced to decide where he stands.
MARCH
Northern Spy
Flynn Berry
A producer and mother to a new baby, Tessa is at work in Belfast one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground since the Good Friday agreement, but they never truly went away. Bomb threats, security checkpoints, and ominous helicopters flying over the city have become a part of daily life. As the news reporter's request the public's help in locating those responsible for the robbery, footage reveals Tessa's sister, Marian, pulling a black ski mask over her face.
The police believe Marian has joined the IRA, but Tessa believes she has been abducted or coerced.
When the truth about Marian comes to light, Tessa is faced with impossible choices that will test the limits of her ideals, her idea of right and wrong, and her identity as sister and mother,
Riveting and atmospheric, Northern Spy is a heart-pounding story of the contemporary IRA and a moving portrait of sister-and motherhood.
MONTHLY DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
The Cold Millions Discussion Questions
The Cold Millions Discussion Questions
1. Throughout The Cold Millions, the author Jess Walter shifts perspectives, giving voice to a variety of characters. Why do you think the author chose to structure the novel in this way? If the story had been told in just one character’s voice, whose would you want it to be?
2. How would you characterize Rye’s personality? Is he a cynic, a realist, or something else? Do you get a sense of his convictions by the end of the book?
3. How do Gig’s personality and convictions contrast with Rye’s? Which of the young men would you want to have alongside you in a protest movement?
4. The novel’s two main female characters, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Ursula the Great, each receive a fair amount of time on the page before they get to speak for themselves. When they do tell their stories, do they change the perception you’ve formed of them from others’ narratives? What are their similarities and differences?
5. From page 18: “Rye had an insight that felt like a reverie, that, man or women, Catholic or Prod, Chinese, Irish, or African, Finn or Indian, rich or poor, the world is built to eat you alive, but before you go down the gullet, the bastards can’t stop you from looking around.” What does Rye’s insight mean to you? How are the themes of freedom and self-determination portrayed by various characters in the book?
6. What stereotypes or narratives are projected onto the itinerant workers in the book? Do you think these stereotypes are still projected onto itinerant workers today? If so, in what ways and by whom?
7. The free speech fight of 1909 depicted in the book was instrumental in allowing workers to unionize and protest unfair labor practices. Our right to freedom of expression and association enshrined in the 1st Amendment has been challenged and redefined throughout history. In what ways are those rights being challenged today?
8. Over the course of American history, how have unions and the labor movement helped all workers?
9. Does reading historical fiction provide you with perspective on current events?
10. The IWW was known for accepting people of all races and cultures into their ranks and promoting big societal changes. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn herself spoke passionately about the need to make the world a better place for women, people of color, and the poor. Other union leaders of the time wanted to raise wages but did not condone what they viewed as her revolutionary fervor. What are the pluses and minuses of each viewpoint?
11. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn says to Rye, “Men sometimes say to me: You might win the battle, Gurley, but you’ll never win the war. But no one wins the war, Ryan. Not really. I mean, we’re all going to die, right? But to win a battle now and then? What more could you want?” Do you find this to be a hopeful sentiment? Does this notion inspire you in your own activism?
12. The epigraph to the epilogue comes from Tolstoy: “Life did not stop, and one had to live.” How does this f it with what follows, in which Rye finally speaks in the first person? Did you like knowing what happened in the aftermath of the novel’s main events?