Book Club Discussion Questions
For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, and our BookBrowse Review of Slumberland.
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
About
This Guide
These discussion questions are designed to enhance your group's conversation
about
Slumberland, a jazzy novel about one DJ's quest for the perfect
beat in post–Cold War Berlin.
About this book
Ferguson Sowell, aka DJ Darky, wants to create the sonic Mona Lisa: a song
that will bring together every partygoer with an irresistible toe-tapping beat.
He debuts his near-perfect beat to his music collective, the Beard Scratchers,
and they all agree that the song is only missing one thing: a guest appearance
by a man they call "the Schwa"—Charles Stone, a legendary jazz player who
disappeared to Europe decades ago. DJ Darky has one clue to finding Stone: a
pornographic videotape with an undeniably Schwa-like soundtrack. He traces the
tape to a West Berlin bar called Slumberland, where he lands a job as a "jukebox
sommelier," collecting the most party-friendly tunes in the Western world.
As soon as DJ Darky starts to adapt to Berlin's rhythms, the Berlin Wall comes
down, inundating West Berlin with an array of Easterners eager for capitalist
pleasures. A bedraggled, silent black man haunts the bar for donations to
rebuild the wall as a mark of protest against Western commercialization. Without
even knowing it, Ferguson Sowell has stumbled upon the Schwa, the jazz legend
himself. The two musicians, Charles Stone and DJ Darky, will collaborate to
build the New Berlin Wall of Sound, in a single broadcast that just might change
the sound of Berlin forever.
For discussion
- Slumberland
opens with DJ Darky stepping into a Berlin tanning
salon, two days after he and Charles Stone performed a "melody so
transcendent that blackness has officially been declared passé." (16) How
does this tanning salon scene set the stage for the novel? Does it appear
that DJ Darky succeeded in making blackness "passé?" Why or why not?
- Discuss the setting of the novel. Is Berlin the perfect city for DJ
Darky and his music? What about Charles Stone? What other cities could
potentially inspire and challenge each musician?
- Ferguson narrates some of his earliest experiences of race, opportunity,
and music while growing up in Los Angeles. What are the key steps that he
takes early in life, on his way to becoming DJ Darky?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Bloomsbury USA.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
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