Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Long Fall:
1. What do you think of Mosley's new detective hero, Leonid Trotter McGill? How would you describe him...his personality and the code of ethics he lives by—having changed from being "crooked to slightly bent"? If you're a fan of the "Private I" genre, how is LT similar to or different from other PI's...in either in Mosley's or other authors' works?
2. Much of literature is concerned with how the past never leaves us, how it dogs the present. In what way is that especially true of McGill? How does he struggle to live down his past? Is it possible to escape the past, especially a past like McGill's?
3. Talk about McGill's Buddhist approach toward life: "Throwing a punch is the yang of a boxer's life. The Yin is being able to avoid getting hit." How does that translate into LT's life "philosophy" (or anyone's life philosophy)?
4. Comment on this statement by McGill: "One thing I had learned in fifty-three hard years of living is that there's a different kind of death waiting for each and every one of us — each and every day of our lives. There's drunk drivers behind the wheels of cars, subways, trains, planes, and boats; there's banana peels, diseases and the cockeyed medicines that supposedly cure them; you got airborne viruses, indestructible microbes in the food you eat, jealous husbands and wives, and just plain bad luck." Is that a realistic view of life...tragic... cynical...or absurdly pessimistic?
5. What is McGill's relationship with his wife...and what about his mistress? How does he relate to his children? Talk about their problems, especially Twill's.
6. Mosley introduces a large cast of characters fairly early on in the book. Did you find their number confusing...or were you able to follow along easily?
7. Why does McGill accept Thurman's job offer to locate the four young men ... even though he has misgivings? How is LT used to extract revenge, thus becoming an accomplice to murder? To what degree is McGill "responsible" for the various deaths that occur?
8. Talk about the plot. Did you find the novel's twists and turns suspenseful? Or were they predictable...formulaic...or simply confusing?
9. What is the significance of the title? What is the "long fall"?
10. Mosley uses a degree of stream-of-consciousness in The Long Fall. Did that narrative technique work for you? Why might the author have used it, as opposed, say, to straightforward exposition?
11. The works of the great noir mystery writers (Hammett, Spillane, Chandler) serve as lenses through which to view a culture of time and place. How is Mosley's work such a lens for New York City?
12. Is the ending satisfying? Why or why not? Were you surprised by the book's conclusion...or did you "see it coming"?
13. The Long Fall is the first in a planned new series based on Leonid McGill. Is the series off to a good start? Are you intrigued enough to read newer installments as they're added.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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