Reading Group Discussion Guide

1. Discuss the protagonist's "taboo purr" as she dips her forefinger

      into the "happy pink wax" pooling around the dripping candle. Why

do you think she refers to the sticky paraffin as an "eerie halo?"

2. What vice is the protagonist's father trying to quell when he axes

his ascots?

3. Why does the protagonist always associate the "slut" girl with

pastoral images of blooming jutes and idyllic vales dotted with ewes?

4. What is the aim of the "idiot" boy who maims his gerbils? Why

does the protagonist yawn instead of yelp?

5. What do the mother's reoccurring dreams of radon signify? Why

      does she continually say, "Get me another drink, darling" even when

no one else is home?

6. Who, in your opinion, is the real goner? Is anybody actually resting

in peace? (RIP, as the headstones say.)

7. We learn in chapter 4 that the protagonist's favorite letter is a "Z."

      Notice all the zee sounds in the final paragraph of the novel—fizz,

      zipdrive, hazy buzzing. What is the significance of ending the book

on the word "zero"?