Book Club Discussion Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
- The novel begins with Willies question to his father about why he was
named after the English novelist W. Somerset Maugham. If a name is a crucial
piece of a persons identity, how useful is the information Willie receives? How
does Maugham come across in his responses to Willies and his fathers letters?
- How does Willies father become a holy man? What is comical, and what is
reprehensible, in the choices he makes? Is he a person trapped in circumstances
beyond his control, or might he have done things differently? What is the source
of his narcissism? Considering that in Maughams The Razors Edge,
the holy man is believed by his Western admirers to be a person of true
integrity, why does Naipaul portray this character as a fraud?
- Naipaul has written about Indias caste system in several of his
nonfiction books. How does he recreate the social world of a caste-based culture
in this novel? Why does he choose to root the circumstances of a novel about
identityor the lack of itin a characters half-hearted effort to rebel against
the caste system? Given the feelings he expresses for his wife and child on
pages 32 and 33, is Willies father a racist at heart, despite his admiration
for Gandhi?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.