Questions for Folly

Here are some questions to think about concerning Folly.

This is a very basic question, but it sounds like it will be relevant to our discussion. Did you like the book? What about the book did you like? If you did not care for the book - why? What particular things did you not care for?

Here are some questions from Christine:

What does Rae look like in your mind?

Do you like Desmond, do you find that at one time in his life he was self admittingly evil, offensive, or do you look past it because he went through the war?

When the neighbors from the neighborhood show up to help her raise the wall, do find it helpful or intrusive, does it bother you that they are there?

How bothersome is it to you that Rae knows she is being manipulated and is going along with it?

Are their times when you let yourself be manipulated because in the end you are not willing to give something up?

Do you like Rae?

Are you afraid of the dark?

Do you worry when you hear noises or do you feel safe in your own skin?

Here are a few more questions:

At the beginning of the book Rae, under medical treatment for depression, throws away her medications. Is she wrong to do so? And was Laurie King irresponsible to show her character acting in this way?

Folly is set on an island inhabited only by Rae (as far as she knows), yet she encounters more neighbors there than she did while living in the California mountains. Is this just a plot device, or does it say something about how we create a community?

Is Folly a women’s book? What does “women’s book” mean to you? Would you give this to your husband/father/brother?

Rae does things many women could not imagine: she makes her living through physical labor, she tackles a huge and exhausting job single-handed, she takes herself into a setting most women would consider at least spooky, if not downright dangerous. Is Rae a realistic character? What does it say about the restrictions placed on women that the freedom to do these things is not an option?

Rae is a person who has experienced an entire string of catastrophes, which would be a fictional device except that there are any number of people in real life to whom the same thing happens. To what extent has Rae brought her problems on herself?

Come ready to talk on Wednesday!