Book Club Discussion Questions
When Light Breaks Through
1: Is Ann Putnam a sympathetic character? How does she compare with Abby Williams?
2: What do you think of Thomas Putnam? Joseph Green suggests to Ann that she can try to hate the sin but love the sinner when it comes to her father. Is this realistic?
3: What do you think of Samuel Nurse’s decisions?
4: How does Joseph Green change in the course of the novel?
5: How are seventeenth-century marriage and family life portrayed in the Putnams and the Greens?
6: Who is your favorite character and why?
7: What do you think is the most effective scene in the novel?
8: The witch trials are primarily legal proceedings. What was your response to the trial scenes?
9: Thomas Brattle is an example of the new scientific way of thinking that was developing at the end of the 17th century. How do older ways of thinking come into the novel?
10: How do Joseph Green’s religious views compare with your general sense of what “the Puritans” thought and how they behaved? What seems to be most important to him about Christianity?
11: When does the light break through? Does this happen more than once? Does it make a difference to Salem Village?
12: Were you acquainted with the Salem witch trials before you read this book? Were you surprised by any of the historical information it contains? Did it change your view of the witchcraft episode?
13: Are there conflicts and events in the contemporary world that have similarities to those in the novel? If so, does it suggest a viable approach to them?
Kindling of a Firebrand
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- How does the Prologue relate to the rest of the book? Do you think it draws attention to important aspects of Fran’s life?
- How are Jim and Cate Sweeney’s different influences felt by Fran as she grows up? What do you respond to in their characters? Whose presence do you find more powerful in the novel?
- What do you think of Fran’s education at St. Mary’s, The Mount, and Burdett College? Were you struck by any of the ideas about learning and teaching that are reflected there? Are they fundamentally different from today’s ideas? How does Fran’s educational experience influence her later life?
- Would you say that Fran is lucky in her friends?
- How do the different Boston neighborhoods that Fran experiences come off in the novel? Which would be the most interesting place to spend a couple of hours in?
- What do you think the best scene in the novel is? Why?
- Given the choice, would you rather work at The Firm, Sturgis, Brown and Tallow, or the Boston City Reporter? Would you say there have been fundamental changes in any of these kinds of businesses since the mid-twentieth century?
- Do you think Fran made good decisions about the work she chose to do? Would her choices have been different in the twenty-first century? What do you see as her most important accomplishment(s)?
- What do Charles Coughlin and Edward Lodge Curran represent in the novel? What is Fran fighting when she opposes them? Was she right to try to silence them and shut down Social Justice and the Christian Front?
- There are several types of leftists who influence Fran. What differences do you see among Granville Hicks, Bill Joyce, and Jim Sweeney? What visions of the world do they have? How are they trying to realize them? Which character do you see as most practical in his goals and methods? Which is most idealistic?
- Fran has very different relationships with Bill Joyce, Gus Gazulis, and Jimmie Bottis. What do you see as healthy or unhealthy in these relationships? If Fran had recovered from her heart attack, how would you see the future for Fran and Jimmie?
- Do you find anything in Fran’s story that resonates with the present time?