QUESTIONS

1. Addington, Charles and Simon have very different characters and ideas, and lead very different lives. What do you think accounts for this? Are they alike in any way?

2. Is it significant that Charles and Simon are twins?

3. The Gaunt brothers attended Oxford and presumably received the finest education available to men of their day. Compare their education with the “education” of the other characters, such as Potts, Custis and Lucy.

4. In what way is this novel like the westerns most people grew up watching on TV and in the movies? In what way is it different?

5. Most of the novel is told in the first person by Custis, Aloyisius, Lucy and Charles. The author makes it clear who is speaking by putting a name at the beginning of each passage. How does the author make each person’s voice distinctive? Other sections are told by an outside narrator. What is the effect of this? Why does the author do this?

6. Why is Charles unable to stand up to Addington?

7. Why does Aloyisius take it upon himself to look after Custis?

8. What episodes and details in the book communicate the “grittiness” of the life the frontier people led?

9. Why does Lucy repeatedly make bad decisions?

10. There are occasions when Charles intends well, but messes up people’s lives, such as the time he tells his father about Simon’s friendship with Oronhyatekha. Why does Charles remain clueless about life and people?

11. Simon and Custis have both turned to the Bible. What do they look for in the holy book that is missing from their lives? Do they find it?

12. What do Custis’s flashbacks to his war experiences add to the understanding of his character? How does the theme of war fit into the book as a whole?

13. Does the author keep up your expectations that Simon will be found, or do you think Charles and Addington are on a futile search?

14. Potts observes that white men have to name everything in their language. “Once they give a name to a thing they think that is enough to understand it. (p. 98)” What is the significance of names and labels in the book?

15. Throughout the book, various individuals remember or recount significant dreams. What is the effect of these dream sequences?

16. What is the point of the scene in which the two tribes battle? Why does Jerry Potts return to bury the brothers?

17. There are many father and son stories in the book - Jerry & Mitchell, Henry Gaunt & his 3 sons, Aloysius’s story about his father, Jerry & his real and adoptive fathers. What is the author saying about father and son relationships?

18. Potts remarks that “...to live divided is dangerous, a confusion that sickens the spirit (p. 100).” How do almost all the characters in the book “live divided”.

19. Which characters succeed in “crossing over” to their “promised land”? Why are the others incapable of crossing over?