Book Summary and Reviews of Good Trouble by Joseph O'Neill

Book Summary

A masterly collection of eleven stories about the way we live now from the best-selling author of Netherland.

From bourgeois facial-hair trends to parental sleep deprivation, Joseph O'Neill closely observes the mores of his characters, whose vacillations and second thoughts expose the mysterious pettiness, underlying violence, and, sometimes, surprising beauty of ordi­nary life in the early twenty-first century. A lonely wedding guest talks to a goose; two poets struggle over whether to participate in a "pardon Edward Snowden" verse petition; a cowardly husband lets his wife face a possible intruder in their home; a potential co-op renter in New York City can't find anyone to give him a character reference.

On the surface, these men and women may be in only mild trouble, but in these perfectly made, fiercely modern stories O'Neill reminds us of the real, secretly political consequences of our internal monologues. No writer is more incisive about the strange world we live in now; the laugh-out-loud vulnerability of his people is also fodder for tears.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. What links the eleven stories to one another, other than their having been written by Joseph O'Neill? If you have read Netherland, how are these stories similar or not similar to that novel in terms of their themes?
2. How are the stories urban, even those that are set in more rural settings? How is New York City a character in most of the stories?
3. The stories are all set in the present day, in the early twenty-first century. How does the past seep into the stories? Or does it not?
4. Are the narrators' voices in the stories similar throughout the collection? Why or why not? Describe the various perspectives.
5. Discuss the role of male friendship in the collection. How are the friendships primarily connected to sports,...