Tom Lake Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) and Our Town and our BookBrowse Review of Tom Lake.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. For what reasons is Our Town, the play by Thornton Wilder, significant and lasting? What about the play made Lara say that it "spoke to us, made us feel special and seen"? When Lara says, "ours was that kind of town," what might she mean?
2. What issues explored in Our Town are particularly relevant to this novel, Tom Lake?
3. What's the significance of Laura changing the spelling of her name to Lara, after the character in Doctor Zhivago? In what ways are personal names powerful and important or not?

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