Tumbledown Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Vocational Rehabilitation and our BookBrowse Review of Tumbledown.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Early in the book we learn the IQ scores of several characters, as well as several cultural figures (page 57). How does this information frame how you read the rest of the book and evaluate the characters? Why do you think only Karly's score is officially on record? Do you think intelligence tests and tests of "psychological disorders" reveal the truth, or could the tests themselves be biased?
2. Maura Wood—brazen, bold, "a rebel without a cause" as Billy describes her—loves schizophrenia-diagnosed Mick and pursues a lopsided friendship. "She wanted him to be well, and she needed him to be ill" (page 93). Why do we "need" people to be something that they don't want to be? How is Maura different from other characters? Is she more dangerous to others or herself?
3. In Same Man (the comic written by Candler and Billy, and illustrated by Candler's mentally impaired older brother, Pook), all the characters have the same face. One of Same Man's tasks "was to keep the good guys and the bad guys straight" (page 140). Is this a larger theme in the book, or are there no good or bad guys? What is the larger connection between mental instability and artistic representation?

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