Girl Through Glass (Wilson) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available. In the meantine, use these LitLovers talking points to kick-start a discussion for Girl Through Glass...then take off on your own:

1. Girl Through Glass alternates between two time frames, an adult Kate and young Mira. Describe "both characters—how does the older Kate differ from her younger self?

2. Follow-up to Question 1: How does Kate's past life, as Mira, shape her present life—including her bitterness, her lackluster career, and her current relationship with a student?

3. Talk about the world behind the scenes at the American Ballet Theater and/or the American Ballet School. How does Girl Through Glass portray the life of the dancers, including the competition among them and their physical ordeals?

4. Other stories, both books and film, have explored the obsessive, competitive, and sometimes seamy side of the ballet world—Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes (and film, 1948 ), Turning Point (film, 1977), Center Stage (film, 2000), Black Swan (film, 2010), Breaking Pointe (TV, 2012), Flesh and Bone (TV 2015), and Maggie Shipstead's Astonish Me (novel, 2014). If you have read or watched any of those, how does Girl Through Glass compare?

5. What does the world of dance offer Mira as she navigates her way through her parents' unraveling marriage? Talk about the ways in which the dance world saves and/or fails her.

6. What drives balletomanes and the character of Maurice? Does he make you feel uneasy, even queasy...or not? What does Mira gain from Maurice...and vice versa? What does Maurice's infatuation with Mira suggest about the power of a young body? Describe the nuances of the relationship between Maurice and Mira? Who is in control? Does the power equation change?

7. Maurice instills in Mira the "understanding of what you have to give up to be beautiful." What does Mira (and any other dancer) have to give up, and is the sacrifice worth it?

8. Where you surprised by what Kate uncovers when she returns to New York? Does the revelation address unanswered questions or tie up loose ends? Does the conclusion feel overly coincidental...or does it work?

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

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