Book Club Discussion Questions and Guide for Too Soon by Betty Shamieh

1. Too Soon opens with Arabella recalling the painful alienation she felt at the very moment when her city was united in grief and fear from their shared experience living through 9/11. When her fellow theatre artists gathered in community, she remained silent rather than open up about her feelings: "Not a day goes by where I don't feel haunted and hunted. Every day is like September 11 for me. Welcome to how I feel all the time" (page 4). Why do you think Arabella chose silence? How does the feeling of being "hunted" determine her character throughout the novel?
2. As a schoolgirl in Palestine in the 1920s, Zoya led her friends in acting out skits where schoolgirls defeated British soldiers using the power of wit and comedy: "As we face their firing squad, they'll let us have a few last words. We will use that opportunity to tell a joke... . A joke to end all jokes! Their soldiers will be overcome. Double over with laughter. They will be disarmed!" (page 111). What are some other examples of how characters wield humor in Too Soon? In what ways does humor empower the powerless, and in what ways is it limited?
3. For her entire adult life, Arabella has been attracted to Yoav, her closest friend and frequent partner in her theatrical work: "Yoav was the person I trusted more than anyone else in a room when I was directing. And when I was directing was the only time I truly trusted myself" (page 20). How does her connection with Yoav reflect her relationship with herself? How does their bond and her sense of self evolve over the course of the novel?
4. Arabella dislikes being associated with Lisa-Turned-Layla, a fellow Palestinian theatre artist who has the same Ivy League credentials and diasporic background as Arabella. Why does she feel animosity toward Lisa-Turned-Layla? How does mocking her allow Arabella to deflect some uncomfortable feelings about herself?
5. As a young mother, Zoya loved to tell all her children stories starring female heroines rather than traditionally male characters. Naya remembers, "I understood how revolutionary it was for a mother of mostly daughters to change the genders of main characters so we could see ourselves as primary in the adventures of Aladdina, Alia Baba, and Sinbada" (page 237). In later years, however, Zoya focuses all her dreams on her only boy: "I would soon deem the feeding and clothing of daughters as a waste of family resources, depleting that which was supposed to go to our son" (page 169). Why do you think Zoya's choices conflicted with the spirit of her storytelling? How did her beliefs change—or not change—over time?
6. Unlike Zoya and Naya, Arabella is not forced into an arranged marriage to a stranger, but her family still pressures her to marry a man within their community. How does this pressure cast a shadow over her relationship with Aziz? How does her imagined future with him contrast with her imagined future with Yoav?
7. Arabella tries to wriggle out of her commitment to direct Hamlet in Ramallah: "Touring a conflict zone full of armed settlers and soldiers? Not for me" (page 23). Later, she pledges to approach her trip "like it was a military mission. Get in, direct a play, get out" (page 95). On top of concern for her physical safety, she's anxious about plunging into an emotional war zone. How do her fears come out in her conversations with Aziz and Lisa-Turned-Layla? How do her feelings surprise her once she arrives and experiences daily life in the West Bank?
8. Zoya's family was able to get back on their feet in Detroit partially due to their connection to King Tut, a young Black man who stepped into the role of older son/big brother when Zoya's own relatives shunned them. What forces ultimately separate King Tut from Zoya and her family? How does King Tut's unshakable sense of justice influence Zoya and Naya over the decades?
9. As Arabella listens to Yoav's mother, Indji, tell her life story, she experiences a shift in perspective: "Inviting a competing history into your worldview is disorienting. It flips a switch in your brain and your vision suddenly becomes kaleidoscopic. The shards of your people's history are true and clear, but they don't coalesce into a neat picture of saints and sinners" (page 89). Were you surprised by how Indji's family story mirrors Arabella's own family story? How does Arabella react to hearing it?
10. In Detroit in the 1960s, Palestinian refugee families like Zoya's fear that their status as Arabs in America is deeply precarious. To escape anti-Arab prejudice, Zoya's husband allows others to assume that his family is Greek. A generation later, Naya follows in her father's footsteps by adopting the "camouflage" of wealthy Palo Alto women: "I might blend in if I dressed like the rest. So, if the American government tried to round up Arabs ... might one of my neighbors come to our defense? To proclaim Naya and her family are just like us?" (page 269). For Arabella's part, she's upset that Lisa-Turned-Layla "outed me as a Palestinian" (page 20). How does American history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries contribute to this intimidation?
11. Arabella and Aziz are called by different purposes in life, and they each believe that the other's mission is more important: "I direct plays. You save lives," Arabella protests (page 180). Aziz disagrees: "Call us animals? Go ahead... . People like you prove we contribute. We make beauty. We make art" (page 180). What does the book have to say about art, humanity, and dignity?
12. When Arabella is trying to steel herself not to feel such strong feelings of anger at her family's displacement from their home, she tells herself: "There are always winners and losers. Most of us are both. My Manhattan apartment was built on Native American land" (page 95). What other examples of displacement and disenfranchisement does the novel refer to?
13. Naya tells Esther she wishes that her competitive feelings over their children's test scores had not come between them: "I wouldn't have wasted so much time missing out on being with the person who makes me feel the most alive" (page 287). Why did Naya care so much about the educational disparities between her son and Esther's son? How was she able to regain their friendship?
14. Over the course of the novel, three different performers take on the lead role in Hamlet/Hamleta: Cherifa, Arabella, and Ramez. How are each of them suited for the role? How does Shakespeare's play resonate with the narrative in Too Soon?
15. As Naya and Zoya each confront mortality and their fears for Arabella's future, they disagree over what she will need most when they're gone. Naya believes Arabella needs a husband: "Yes, I got married ten years too early. But if Arabella marries, it will be ten years too late... . She has been lonely for a long time... . I won't leave her alone in this world" (page 190). Zoya surprises herself by pushing back against the idea that Arabella needs a family: "All my life, I was told there was no fate more tragic than dying childless. But it is a lie... . What if just one of the women in my line were allowed to be free?" (page 174). Which of their futures, if any, does Arabella choose? Is being free different from being alone?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.