Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide
July 2004
The Virgin of Bennington
Kathleen Norris
In this absorbing coming-of-age memoir by the author of Dakota: A Spiritual Geography and Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, Norris appeals to every reader's struggle to achieve adulthood, both personally and professionally...
- Do you think the cover photo gave a sense of time/place to this memoir?
- What do you think of Norris' resolve to "test the waters of love" by involving herself with a married man?
- If we had not read Dakota earlier would you have read this book?
- The writer Jhumpa Lakiri, in her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Namesake emphasized the importance of names in determining destiny. Do you think if she had been named Dakota as 1st planned, that Kathleen would have made the same lifestyle choices?
- In most of the writing her tone is emotionally remote. Do you think this is effective for the reader? (See esp. pgs 96 & 97 for examples).
- Comment on her statement in pg 98 that students develop an immunity to poetry in school.
- Do you think Norris' own choices of word would clue us in that a poet is writing - any examples that stand out for you?
- This book seemsd to be a tribute to her mentor Betty Kray, as well as her own story. Did you find this aspect of the book interesting?
- Do you think going back to her Dakota roots might have saved her vovation as a poet? Why?
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