Humboldt Park Branch Library Book Group discussion

This topic is about
The Marriage Plot
May Title is Available for Pick Up!
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Sarah
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Apr 24, 2014 03:22PM

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Not sure if the Marriage Plot is for you? Check this New York Time Book Review.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/boo...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/boo...
Sorry if you were getting ready to call out the search party! I was on vacation. I am back now and ready to get posting! I hope you are enjoying the book and had plenty of time to read it while I was out.
Here are a couple of questions to get you started.
1. In Jeffrey Eugenides's depiction of Brown University culture in the 1980s, what does it take for the students to impress one another and their professors?
2. What does Mitchell hope to discover as a student of religion? What role does religion play in his quest to be loved? Is his ideal—a religion devoid of myth and artificial social structures—attainable?
3. What does sex mean to Madeleine, Leonard, and Mitchell? Over the course of the novel, what do they discover about fantasy versus reality and the tandem between physical and emotional satisfaction?
4. How do you think the dynamic among the characters would have been different if they’d gone to a state school in the Midwest rather than an Ivy League school in the Northeast? And to that end, what role did socio-economics play in their relationships/friendships?
Here are a couple of questions to get you started.
1. In Jeffrey Eugenides's depiction of Brown University culture in the 1980s, what does it take for the students to impress one another and their professors?
2. What does Mitchell hope to discover as a student of religion? What role does religion play in his quest to be loved? Is his ideal—a religion devoid of myth and artificial social structures—attainable?
3. What does sex mean to Madeleine, Leonard, and Mitchell? Over the course of the novel, what do they discover about fantasy versus reality and the tandem between physical and emotional satisfaction?
4. How do you think the dynamic among the characters would have been different if they’d gone to a state school in the Midwest rather than an Ivy League school in the Northeast? And to that end, what role did socio-economics play in their relationships/friendships?