Reading guide for Joop: A Novel of Anne Frank (A Hatred for Tulips) by Richard Lourie

Reading Guide Questions

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Is Joop responsible for Anne Frank's death? Partially? Fully? Not at all?
2. Does he feel enough remorse for the suffering he helped cause?
3. Is Joop's brother Willem partially responsible for Anne Frank's death? Joop points out that Willem did eat the extra food they got for betraying Anne Frank which might have saved him from death during the terrible last winter of the war.
4. Should Joop have done anything possible to keep his father alive?
5. How do you understand the dream Joop has when he is ill with diphtheria? Is it mere delirium? Or does it have meaning? Or is it a mix of meaning and delirium?
6. How does the quote from George Orwell help you understand the book?
7. What is the role of food in this novel?
8. Does the book exploit the memory and image of Anne Frank or is it a sincere attempt to understand what motivates people during wartime?

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