Female admirers seek autographs.                   Author prepares for a book tour.

 

Benedict XVI

  

To what extent is Benedict XVI a picaresque novel? Which persons or groups is the author satirizing? How does a characterization of the novel as picaresque help us understand it?

 

Is Benny Good a sympathetic character? Is he meant to be? Are we supposed to laugh at him or with him? Is the description of him as obese and sloppy consistent with his success as a seducer?

 

The author occasionally uses the literary device of “breaking frame,” interrupting the dialogue and narrative to suggest that the reader is reading a work of fiction. Keep track of examples of this technique. Does it add to the novel, or does it detract from it?

 

Why did the author include the Epilogue?

 

 

Dead White Male

 

Does Dead White Male have any sympathetic characters? Does a comic novel require such characters? It is commonly thought that it does, but does this general rule apply to comic novels? 

 

Does the distinction between the “protagonist” and “antagonist” apply to this novel? If so, who is which? Whose story is it, Ed’s or Mildred’s? Who wins this gender battle? Whose side are we supposed to be on? What is the book’s thesis?

 

The key to understanding Dead White Male is to pay attention to its structure. How is Part One constructed? What is the purpose of the Interlude? (Hint: Read it carefully, even twice.) What are the meanings of the title of its sole chapter, “Breaking the Rules”? Why is Part Two composed of short snippets?

 

The Church of the Comic Spirit

Which individuals and/or groups are the target or targets of this satire? Who will be offended?

 

What features of this book make it more than a collection of individual stories? What holds the novel together as a novel?

 

Why does God change personality from scroll to scroll?

 

Does the title of the first scroll, “First Person Omniscient,” help us understand the story?

 

Why did the author place the Scrolls chronologically prior to the Bible stories? Would it have been wiser to have placed them later than those stories?

 

What is the premise/thesis of the novel?