- What do you think about Paula’s decision to take Mary on the trip, given the antipathy in the deep south post Brown v. Board?
- Why does Puddin so often try to hide or run away? What does her behavior say about the family?
- Why didn’t Paula try to stop Bill from beating Jubie?
- Is Uncle Taylor a racist?
- Why did the clown at Joyland by the Sea give Jubie a rose?
- If you’d been Paula (or Bill) what would you have done when Cordelia failed to appear for dinner? How could they have handled that differently?
- Why does Paula take Bill back after his affair with her brother’s wife?
- Did Bill and Paula act responsibly as parents when they allowed Jubie and Stell to go with Mary to the Daddy Grace parade in Charlotte? The tent meeting in Claxton?
- Why didn’t Paula punish Jubie for stealing the Packard to go to Mary’s Funeral?
- What drove Stamos to suicide?
- Which major character changes the most? The least?
- Which character in the book did you identify with the most? The least?
- If you could interview Jubie, what would you ask her? What about Mary? Paula? Bill? Stell?
- If Bill died at the end of the book, what would his obituary say if Paula wrote it? If Stell wrote it? If Jubie wrote it?
- Given that there’s little hope for Jubie and Leesum to be friends in 1954, what would it be like for them if they met again today?