I was looking at the back cover of “I Am Charlotte Simmons” by Tom Wolfe. In small type near the bottom is the notation “Reading Group Guide available online” and it gives a website.
It begins with the standard back-of-the-book (or metadata, or Amazon description) blurb – perhaps a bit expanded from an Amazon description. Then comes a standard About The Author section, then a list of discussion questions.
1. I Am Charlotte Simmons might be considered a breakthrough for Tom Wolfe as a novelist in that it’s the first of his fictional works to be told (for the most part) from a woman’s point of view. Do you think Wolfe successfully and convincingly presents his tale from a female perspective? Explain.
2. Among the key relationships depicted in Chapter 1 is Charlotte’s special bond with Miss Pennington. What other mentors does Charlotte encounter over the full course of this novel? Is Miss Pennington ever effectively replaced in this capacity? If so, when, and by whom, and why?
3. Define the following: “dormcest,” “sexiled,” “froshtitute,” and “Sarc 3” (as well as “Sarc 2” and “Sarc 1,” for that matter). What other collegiate terms or slang vocabulary were new to you as you made your way through the book?
And so forth. Would adding a Reading Group Guide for your book on your website help you sell more books?
To quote my trombone mentor: “Try everything. Use what works.”
