Book Summary and Reviews of Lone Stars by Justin Deabler

Book Summary

Justin Deabler's Lone Stars follows the arc of four generations of a Texan family in a changing America.

Julian Warner, a father at last, wrestles with a question his husband posed: what will you tell our son about the people you came from, now that they're gone? Finding the answers takes Julian back in time to Eisenhower's immigration border raids, an epistolary love affair during the Vietnam War, crumbling marriages, queer migrations to Cambridge and New York, up to the disorienting polarization of Obama's second term. And in these answers lies a hope: that by uncloseting ourselves―as immigrants, smart women, gay people―we find power in empathy.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Throughout the book, Lacy confronts sexism in various settings: familial, educational, financial, religious. How do these dynamics affect her choices? How does Lacy discover a form of agency in a world of men (and women) who don't think of her as a protagonist?
2. At different times, characters in the book confront what it means to be able, or unable, to live where they are born. What kinds of migrations occur across the story? How do these experiences resonate with and vary from one another? What do the migrants leave behind, and what never leaves them about the places where they were born?
3. Late in his life, Aaron finds a sense of community with fellow veterans at the VA in Houston—a bond that resulted from an experience...