Discussion Questions
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime use our talking points to help start a discussion for Belle Opening...then take off on your own):
1. Describe the world of a Wall Street financial firm: the boys club vs. the glass ceiling club. Consider both the chauvinism and greed. Are you surprised...amused...disturbed by the environment Maureen Sherry portrays?
2. When one of her male colleagues has his hand down her skirt, Belle thinks, "I’m disgusted at myself for not walking away, for putting up with this stuff just to talk business." Why doesn't she walk away?
3. Maureen Sherry said, in an interview with New York Times reporter Alessandra Stanley, that she wanted to write about the mortgage crisis in an engaging way that ordinary readers would understand. Do you think she succeeded?
4. Have you read other books on the 2008 financial crash...or have you seen the films Margin Call (2011) with Kevin Spacy or The Big Short (2015, based on Michael Lewis's book) with Steve Carell? If so, how does Opening Belle compare? If not, consider reading The Big Short or watching either or both films.
5. Describe the relationship Belle has with her husband Bruce. What attracted her to him originally, and how has he changed? Also, talk about the rarified life-style Belle and Bruce live, including (or especially) the children's preschool.
6. The end of the novel—did you see it coming?
7. Now that you've read Opening Belle, what do you think of Wall Street? Suspicions confirmed? Or better than you expected?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Opening Belle (Sherry) - Discussion Questions
Article Index
Page 4 of 4