Holiday Sale! Save 20% on a BookBrowse membership - for yourself or to give as a gift.

Reading guide for Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Discuss |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Mercury Pictures Presents

A Novel

by Anthony Marra

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra X
Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra
  • Critics' Opinion:

    Readers' Opinion:

  • First Published:
    Aug 2022, 432 pages

    Paperback:
    Jun 2023, 448 pages

    Genres

  • Rate this book


Book Reviewed by:
Kim Kovacs
Buy This Book

About this Book

Reading Guide Questions Print Excerpt

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

  1. Mercury Pictures Presents features a vast cast of characters—some stars, some supporting actors. Which character did you identify with the most? Why?
  2. How does the novel treat its bit players? What do you think Marra was trying to say about whose stories matter? How did he illustrate this point?
  3. Themes of exile and imprisonment recur throughout the novel. How do different characters experience exile, both at home and abroad? How are invisible prisons different from real ones?
  4. What does Annunziata's suitcase represent to her when she fills it with Italian soil and brings it to America? How does this change when she passes it on to Maria? When Maria passes it to Eddie?
  5. Which of Mercury Pictures' fictional films would you most like to see? Why?
  6. What is at the heart of Artie and Maria's relationship? How do they balance each other out?
  7. Why do you think all of the immigrants and exiles in the novel are drawn to Hollywood and the film industry?
  8. Why don't Artie and Ned get along? What do you think motivates Ned to betray Artie?
  9. What does the book have to say about propaganda? Do you think there's such a thing as helpful propaganda, or is it always, on some level, just a lie?
  10. Giuseppe wonders, "What if confino has remade him into a person that his wife and daughter will not recognize, a person only at home in San Lorenzo?" How do you think imprisonment affects him?
  11. Why do you think Inspector Ferrando lets Nino live? How are Ferrando's fictionalized police reports similar to Mercury's films?
  12. Both Maria and her mother keep their emotions inside. How does this help them survive? How does it hurt them?
  13. "She did not know that the soul she refused to sign away would soon feel worthless to her." Why does Anna Weber, the miniaturist, regret not taking the job designing for the Berlin Olympics, even though she knows the Nazis are wrong?
  14. Faustian bargains are mentioned several times throughout the novel. Which characters make Faustian bargains? Is entering into a deal with the devil ever justified?
  15. What elements of the book remind you of things happening in our world today?


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

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Holiday Sale!

Discover exceptional books
for just $3/month.

Find out more


Award Winners

  • Book Jacket: The Covenant of Water
    The Covenant of Water
    by Abraham Verghese
    BookBrowse Fiction Award 2023

    Along the Malabar Coast of South India in 1900, a 12-year-old girl ...
  • Book Jacket: In Memoriam
    In Memoriam
    by Alice Winn
    BookBrowse Debut Book Award 2023

    Alice Winn's remarkable debut, In Memoriam, opens in 1914 at ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wager
    The Wager
    by David Grann
    BookBrowse Nonfiction Award 2023

    David Grann is a journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker and...
  • Book Jacket: Remember Us
    Remember Us
    by Jacqueline Woodson
    BookBrowse YA Book Award 2023

    Remember Us is set largely across a single hazy summer of the 1970s in...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Julia
by Sandra Newman
From critically acclaimed novelist Sandra Newman, a brilliantly relevant retelling of Orwell's 1984 from the point of Smith's lover, Julia.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Roaring Days of Zora Lily
    by Noelle Salazar

    A glittering novel of family, love, ambition, and self discovery by the bestselling author of The Flight Girls.

  • Book Jacket

    The Witches at the End of the World
    by Chelsea Iversen

    Two sisters find themselves at odds in this historical fantasy set during a dark Norwegian winter.

Who Said...

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading, you wish the author that wrote it was a ...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.