Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide

November 2007

Falling Through the Earth
Danielle Trussoni

1. This book was rated as one of the ten best of the year. What aspects of the book do you think contributed to this rating? Do you agree with the rating?

2. Late in the book Danielle reveals that she underestimated her mother and overestimated her father. Why do you think she chose to write the book with the emphasis on her Father? Would telling her mother's story have been as compelling?

3. When we meet Daniel Trussoni, he is a man broken by the events in his life. His brother says he came back from Vietnam a changed man, that war scarred his soul and divorce broke his heart. Which do you think has damaged him more? Is the war responsible for everything that happened to the Trussoni family?

4. By the time Danielle is eleven, the household is deteriorating and her father knows he is losing her mother. Her mother takes a night job and is spending more time out of the house. How is Danielle affected when her mother draws away from the family? Did the fact that her father encouraged her to be independent make her inaccessible to friends?

5. For Daniel there was never any gray area—either his children were for him or against him. Why did Danielle always cover up and apologize for him? Her mother thinks Danielle did not lover her. Why does she choose her father over her mother? Why would Dan want Danielle to come live with him? How did being Dad's favorite affect her childhood? Why did she leave her siblings?

6. When she is in college, Danielle tells her father she wants to write about the tunnels, even invites him to accompany her to Vietnam. But he only wants to forget the whole experience. He says, "I gave that war to you." Do you think that is true?

7. How does her father's alcoholism affect the family in general and Danielle's relationship with him in particular? Does her father understand the effect of his outbursts on her and his other children? He was diagnosed with PTSD a full thirty-five years after the war, but Daniel doesn't believe his problems really affected him family. Does Daniel ever take responsibility for how he treats them?

8. Why does Danielle really go to Vietnam? Is it only to discover the forces that formed her father? Does she accomplish what she intended? Once she experiences Vietnam, is she able to come to terms with her father at last? Does her journey bring acceptance or healing? When Danielle is in graduate school, she receives a tape from her father with scenes from her childhood. Can she now make peace with him?

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