Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why might Dorothy Allison choose to write a novel with fictional characters instead of writing her autobiography?
- Would you say that the subject of this novel is child abuse and incest, or would you say that it is about something else?
- Bone is the ostensible main character of the novel, but does she share that title with Anney? How much is this a novel about Anney?
- It's hard not to love the Boatwrights. Why do you think that we love them so much as characters, even though everyone in Grenville County looks down on them?
- Rather than just telling us the story of Bone's abuse, why does the novel begin with the story of Bone's birth and the story of Anney's life?
- Why is the novel called Bastard Out of Carolina? Why does the novel begin and end with illegitimacy?