The Golden Gate Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, 1940 U.S. Presidential Candidate Wendell Willkie and our BookBrowse Review of The Golden Gate.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. The Golden Gate opens with the deposition of Mrs. Genevieve Bainbridge. This prologue ends with the district attorney saying "We know one of your three granddaughters is a murderer. I can convict all three as co-conspirators, or you can tell me which one did it, and I'll spare the other two." How does this set the stage for the mystery to come?
2. On page 58, Isabella tells Al, "Love makes people reckless." Do you agree with this assessment?
3. Al talks of the city of San Francisco on page 84: "It was a skyline of reinvention. No city more ruthlessly ripped away and replaced what came before than San Francisco." Reinvention is a common theme in The Golden Gate, for San Francisco and also for the characters. How do the characters reinvent themselves in the novel? Why do they choose to do so? Have you ever reinvented yourself, or wanted to?

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