Check It Out Category: Fiction

Title: The Shack
Author: WM. Paul Young
Page Count: 248 pages
Genre: Christian Fiction
Tone:  Inspirational, Thriller

Summary:
Mackenzie Allen Phillips’ youngest daughter has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack. Four years later, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare.

SPOILER WARNING:
These book discussion questions are highly detailed and will ruin plot points if you have not read the book.

Questions composed by MPPL Staff

The Library is happy to share these original questions for your use. If reproducing, please credit with the following statement:  2015 Mount Prospect Public Library. All rights reserved. Used with Permission.

1. 1. Did this book shock or disturb you? Intrigue you?

2. Were you drawn in by the plot of The Shack? How is it as a story?

3. Who is the intended audience?

4. The book maintained a spot on bestseller lists for several weeks and over one million copies have been sold. If religion is such a touchy subject, how can we explain the runaway success of this book?

5. Did you find the character of Mack to be sympathetic?

6. Many readers find the early chapters of The Shack almost too painful to read. Could they have been written in a way that would be less painful without changing the book’s message?

7. Why is The Great Sadness so frequently mentioned and always italicized?

8. Did the family’s different reactions to the tragedy ring true? (e.g., Josh, Kate, Mack)

9. How did you respond to the use of the narrator “Willie”? What did this add to the story?

10. How was Nan characterized? Should she have been more integral to the story?

11. Does the idea of God as a character in the book, or God’s first-person voice, bother you? Does it work within the context of The Shack’s story?

12. Why is God portrayed a woman? What reasons does God give Mack?

13. How is Young’s description of God different from your concept of God? What parts of his description did you like and what parts didn’t you like? Compare Mack’s assumptions of how God might appear to your own.

14. 14. Are people changing their view of God because of this book?
16. 15. Why do you think Mack’s encounter with God took place at the shack?

16. Why did God let Missy die? Do you think The Shack answers convincingly the central question of why, if there is a God, bad things happen to good people? Were you satisfied with God’s answers to Mack about suffering?

17. Why do you think Missy was buried in the garden?

18. What does The Shack say about forgiveness – toward the self or toward those who have wronged you?

19. What were your thoughts about Mack’s reconciliation with his father? In what ways to our relationships with our parents define us? Color our relationship with God? With others?

21. 20. What is the literary merit of this book?

21. What do we know of the author? What does he reveal about himself in the story and in his reasons for writing?

22. How does the author portray church (or The Church)? Do you agree?

24. 23. Which part of the book spoke to you the most and why?

24. What part of the book created the most questions for you?

OTHER RESOURCES:

Lit Lovers’ Discussion Questions
Video of Young talking on CBN (Christian Bible Network)
USA Today Article on controversy surrounding The Shack
Q&A with WM Paul Young
Richards Academy’s Discussion Guide

READALIKES:

Title: Beautiful Ruins
Author: Jess Walter
Page Count: 337 pages
Genre: Fiction
Tone: Romantic, Dazzling

Summary:
From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.

SPOILER WARNING:
These book discussion questions are highly detailed and will ruin plot points if you have not read the book.

Questions composed by MPPL Staff

The Library is happy to share these original questions for your use. If reproducing, please credit with the following statement:  2015 Mount Prospect Public Library. All rights reserved. Used with Permission.

1. What do you think the quotes at the beginning of the book mean? Do they set a tone for the book?

2. What does the title of this book refer to? Does it capture the essence of the book?

3. Beautiful Ruins had several story lines and timelines . How did that affect your reading?

4. What did you think of Porto Vergogna? A place you would go to visit?

5. Did you have a favorite character?

6. At the beginning of the story, Pasquale Tursi is waiting “for life to come and find him.” What do you think he was waiting for?

7. When Pasquale found out his father died there was no question that Pasquale would come home and take care of his mother. Why?

8. How do you think Carlo influenced Pasquale’s life?

9. In reference to the Tennis court that Pasquale wants to build, Pasquale waxed philosophically “Every point ended with someone missing. It seemed both cruel and in some way true to life”. What do you think about that? What did you think about his tennis court?

10. Did Shane Wheelers parents stunt his growth?

11. Claire Silver, the chief development assistant for legendary film producer Michael Deane, was enchanted by the magic of Hollywood when she saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s two days before her tenth birthday. How do you think this movie shaped who she became? Was it for better or for worse? Is it the idea of fame that draws people to Hollywood, or something else? Is Hollywood as influential on lives today as it was through much of the twentieth century?

12. Claire Silver is portrayed as a go-getter, what did you think of her character?

13. What do you think about this line: “Guilt is sometimes a kind of envy” (pg. 59)?

14. How do you think that the concept of the”American dream” applies in this novel? Do you think it is still attainable? How much of our notions of the American Dream are shaped by Hollywood? Is faith enough—or hard work—to make our dreams come true? Can we truly be, achieve, or do anything we desire?

15. This novel has many artistic inlets using storytelling itself as the story. Did any of them resonate with you?

16. When Pasquale came to Michael Deane’s office all those years later to find Dee, did you believe that Micheal had an altruistic motive to help him?

17. What did you think about Michael Deane? Is there any good in him?

18. Discuss the reunion of Dee and Pasquale. Dee asks Pasquale, “what took you so long?” To which Pasquale answers, “I’m sorry. There was something important I had to do.” Is true love timeless?

19. Pasquale left Dee to go to Amadea and led a good life. What would you have done? What do you think his life would have been like if he stayed?

20. When Amedea told Pasquale that she was pregnant, was she hoping he would marry her? (Pg. 120)

21. Do you think Pasquale would have went back to Amadea if he had not met Dee?

22. Pat Bender was the son of Dee Moray and Richard Burton. What did you think about him? Did he remind you of his father?

23. Why use the movie Cleopatra as the center of the novel?

24. Why do you think Dee kept track of Richard Burton’s career ?

25. What do you think about Dee not telling Pat who is real father was until the end?` pg 211

26. Pat was 45 and running off to Europe in the hopes of finding success. What did you think of this?

27. How are Pat and Shane Wheeler different?

28. Pat talks about living the life he should be living versus the one he actually is living. How is the way your life is dictated come from and where does “the should” come in?

29. How are our identities shaped by the culture we live in? Who shapes our culture in the first place? How did they get the power?

30. What did you think of the Richard Burton Character?

31. Richard Burton said “of course any right blighter would choose being a great actor over being a household word if the stacks were the same.” What do you think the relationship is between fame and art?

32. What did you think of the ending? The author said he wanted to give each of his stories one more moment in the present.

Want help with your book discussion group? Check out tips, advice, and all the ways the Library can help support your group!

Other Resources:

Lit Lovers’ Reading Guide
Book Riot Discussion on Beautiful Ruins
Video Q&A with Jess Walter
In-Depth Interview with Jess Walter
Cleopatra movie trailer

READALIKES:

Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper by Hilary Liftin
The Rocks by Peter Nichols
The Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson

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