Thanks to drunken fights, abuse, loss, and grief hitting them at a young age and continuing to haunt their lives, the characters in Tales of the Madman Underground have little choice but to deal with seriously rough memories and emotions. Karl, in particular, struggles with the loss of his parents—his dad to cancer and his mom, well, to the 1960s. Ultimately, his story is about more than just coping with social and mental pressures in the present; it's about how his past is woven into the fabric of his current problems. The past has a way of lingering in this book.
Questions About Memory and the Past
- How does Karl's past tie into his overwhelming desire to be normal?
- What is it about Beth's own past that makes her snap and become a crazy hippie cat lady? What details does she share that reveal this?
- What are Karl's most significant memories of his past? What do they reveal about his character?
- Tales of the Madman Underground weaves back and forth between stories of Karl's past and present. How does this structure affect the way you read the book?
Chew on This
A lot of the issues Karl struggles with—including insecurity, alcoholism, and a desire to be someone different—are rooted in his parents' dysfunctional relationship.
The discursive structure of the story allows readers to get into the heads of other characters in spite of the first-person central narrator style.