The Visible World Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, A Short History of Czechoslovakia and our BookBrowse Review of The Visible World.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. The Visible World is divided into three sections—"The New World: A Memoir," "Prague: Intermezzo," and "1942: A Novel"—each of which represents a different approach to the same essential story. Which section, do you think, is most "true"? Why? How do the three sections play off of each other to create a complex whole?
2. The first section begins with the narrator stating, "I was born ... into a world that felt just slightly haunted." What haunts his family, his community? How do the ghosts of the past shape the course of the narrator's life?
3. The narrator says of his childhood: "I collected the facts like a child hoping to build an oak from bits of bark." Do you believe that the narrator is ultimately able to reassemble a version of history that closely resembles the true events? How so or how not? Why does he try so earnestly to piece together the story?

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