Welcome to the Book Club hub for A Grandmother Begins the Story!
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If You Liked
If You Liked...A Grandmother Begins the Story
you like Indigenous family sagas, strong Indigenous female characters, and magical realism.
Discussion Questions
- The meaning of the novel’s title, A Grandmother Begins the Story, is layered. Did your interpretation of the title change as you finished the book?
- This novel has a number of grandmothers, each of whom takes center stage at different points in the book. How do each of the grandmothers shape the stories that are being told?
- The stories of a bison herd are told alongside the human stories. How do the bison stories and human stories reflect, mirror, or speak to each other?
- How do bison mothering and grandmothering reflect each other in this novel? And human mothering and grandmothering? Why do you think the novel was written this way?
- There are very few male characters in A Grandmother Begins the Story, but the main male characters play a pivotal role. How do they affect the outcome of the stories of both the humans and bison? Why does the Englishman have no name? Do Jay’s final actions change your perception of him and his relationship with his son?
- Some of the characters speak from the Spirit World. How does the Sprit World contribute to the novel’s meaning? Is this Spirit World different from the one you’ve believed in? What do you think of the roles of death and dying in this novel?
- If there were a definition of hope at the beginning of this book, what might that be? What is the role of hope in the novel’s outcome?
- The women in the book are members of one Métis family. How do each of the women struggle in different ways with their identity and the long-term impacts of intergenerational trauma?
- Geneviève and her sister Velma reconnect through music at the rehab center. How does this relationship help them better understand their own life stories?
- What did the nonhuman characters contribute to the novel? Would it be the same without those voices?
