Birnam Wood Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, The Real Birnam Wood and our BookBrowse Review of Birnam Wood.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. When we first meet Shelley Noakes, she wants out of Birnam Wood and out of her role as Mira Bunting's "sensible, dependable, predictable sidekick" (16 – 17). Discuss the complicated relationship that she and Mira share. What are its strengths, its sources of tension, its imbalances of power? Does their dynamic ever change? If so, is it a change for the better or the worse?
2. Robert Lemoine is captivated by Mira after their surprise encounter at the farm in Thorndike. In his eyes, she's ambitious, determined, and lies with a kind of defiant panache that suggests a "genuine enjoyment of the practice of deception" (78). Consider Lemoine's attraction to Mira and his interest in Birnam Wood. What do you think draws him to her? In what ways do he and Mira share common ground? In what ways are they very different people?
3. "There comes a point," Mira says to Tony Gallo during their tense exchange over whether Birnam Wood should join forces with Lemoine, "where refusing to compromise basically means choosing to be ineffectual" (120). Do you agree with Mira? Delve into this pivotal decision for the activist collective, keeping in mind Birnam Wood's "three Principles of Unity" (113) and the details about the offer that Mira chooses to share with the group. What does Lemoine's proposal look like from Mira's perspective, from Shelley's, from Tony's, from your own? If you were at the hui that night, how would you have voted? Do you think those present would have voted differently if Tony had not been in attendance?

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