Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide
April 2004
The Jitterbug Girl: Class of '55
by Donna Van Straten Remmert
Donna tells about growing up in the 1950's in small-town Wisconsin...
This session, we'll be joined by Donna Van Straten Remmert, the author of The Jitterbug Girl: Class of '55. Susan Albert will begin by interviewing her about her book and the process of writing it. Then we'll open the meeting to your comments and questions. Here are a few things you might want to think about.
- Which chapter is your favorite? Why?
- Which chapter do you think is most important? Why?
- Donna describes herself on page 2 as a girl who "hates rules." Do you think this is really true? How would you describe her? How does she change throughout the book?
- The book spans the period October 1951-June 1955, and each chapter is dated. What else does the writer do to set the memoir firmly in the period? Is she successful, do you think?
- This book is also the memoir of a family with deeply religious, Midwestern values, rooted in the American mid-century. What evidences of this do you see? Reread "A Prominent Citizen" (pp. 37-40) and "A Television of Our Own" (pp. 122-124). Are there some ironies here?
- In addition, this book is in part the memoir of a place, the little town of Black Creek, Wisconsin. Some of the details of this town are fondly remembered, other details are seen with a much more critical eye. Glance back through "My Hissy Fit," for instance (pp 98-105). What does this chapter reveal about the town?
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