Beautifully Foolish Endavor (Green) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for A BEAUTIFULLY FOOLISH ENDEAVOR … and then take off on your own:

1. Presuming you've read the first Carls novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (ART), is this book a worthy sequel? Why or why not?

2. In what way does A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (BFE) reflect our own era back to us? Consider its take on these topics: capitalism, globalism, race, income disparity, technology.

3. (Follow-up to Question 1) Like its predecessor, BFE jumps into some of life's big questions, asking some fairly philosophical questions. One is this: in the age of technology, what does it mean to be human? How does the book address the question, and how do you?

4. (Follow-up to Questions 2 and 3) Another question Green poses to readers is about power—how it's used, to what ends, and who gets to wield it.

5. What is the degree to which the digital world pervades our culture, and what effect does it have on our humanity—especially on how we perceive our humanity?

6. The First Carls book left readers with ambiguity. What more do readers learn about the Carls this time around? What do you learn about their identity and motivation?

7. April was the center of ART, controlling the narrative voice. BFE varies the point of view, using the perspective of five narrators, as well as Tweets, podcasts, news articles, YouTube, and chat forums. Do you prefer one narrative strategy over the other? If so why?

8. Pick out one of your favorite quotations from the book and talk about why you chose it, its significance, and the extent to which, if any, it relates to your own life?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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