Book Club: Boom! | Question 1

Brokaw covers many issues in Boom! including race, politics, Vietnam, women’s rights, drug culture and counter culture. Do you feel he leaves anything out? What else might Brokaw have used to define the 1960s?

Book Club: Boom! | Question 2

Brokaw has mentioned several times that the acts that took place in the 1960s are shaping our lives today. Do you agree?

Book Club: Boom! | Question 3

Former president Bill Clinton is quoted in Boom! saying, “If you thought something good came out of the Sixties, you’re probably a Democrat; if you thought the Sixties were bad, you’re probably a Republican.” What do you think of the Sixties? Were the results positive or negative?

Book Club: Boom! | Question 4

Boom! is often described as a “reunion of the Class of 1968.” Are you from this generation? What are your thoughts on the book as a “reunion?”

Book Club: Boom! | Question 5

Did you miss the 1960s by being born too late? Does this book still resonate with you?

Book Club: Boom! | Question 6

Were you a student at Pacific University between 1963 and 1974? How do Brokaw’s descriptions of the time fit in to your memories of life at Pacific?

Book Club: Boom! | Question 7

Where were you when? Share your story of the 1960s

Book Club: Suite Française | Question 1

The novelist, who herself fled Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion, wrote the book virtually while the occupation was happening, most likely making Suite Française the first work of fiction about World War II. How do you think she managed to write while she herself was in jeopardy? Do you think it was easier for her to capture the day-to-day realities of life under occupation? In what ways might the book have been different if she had survived and been able to write Suite Française years after the war?

Book Club: Suite Française | Question 2

Suite Française is a unique pair of novels. Which of the two parts of Suite Française do you prefer? Which structural organization did you find more effective: the short chapters and multiple focus of Storm in June, or the more restricted approach of Dolce?

Book Club: Suite Française | Question 3

What is the significance of the title Dolce?

Book Club: Suite Française | Question 4

How does Suite Française undermine the long-held view of French resistance to the German occupation?

Book Club: Suite Française | Question 5

Discuss Irène Némirovsky’s approach to class in Suite Française. How do the rich, poor, and the middle classes view one another? How do they help or hinder one another? Do the characters identify themselves by class or nationality?

(You might consider the aristocratic Mme de Montmort’s thought in Dolce: “What separates or unites people is not their language, their laws, their customs, but the way they hold their knife and fork.”)