Black Cloud Rising Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Sergeant Richard Etheridge's Second Act and our BookBrowse Review of Black Cloud Rising.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Black Cloud Rising begins with a childhood flashback that introduces us to the tangled web of power and family dynamics that will play out between Richard, Patrick, and John B. over the rest of the novel. Discuss these. What details does Faladé use to highlight these complicated relationships?
2. White supremacy and military rank aren't the only hierarchies that Richard and his fellow troopers are forced to navigate in Black Cloud Rising. What other systems are imposed on them? What lines do they draw to unite or divide themselves? How and why do they cross those lines?
3. When describing white attitudes about the recruitment of Black soldiers, Richard dismisses Northern paternalism and Southern horror as "but different sides of the same coin" and "bunkum for self-interested purpose." At the same time, he praises General Wild for his similarly dehumanizing appraisal of men like him as "pure terror. Just that" (p. 17). Why do you think this is?

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