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 PARAKEET … then take off on your own:
1. In an angry exchange with a man she describes as having "frat boy resting face," The Bride thinks to herself, "I am a bird trapped inside another person’s life, sensing its mistake and trying to exit against relentless glass.” In what way does that passage encapsulate the narrator's struggle throughout this novel? How else might you describe The Bride's confusion?
2. Talk about The Bride's post-traumatic stress, the fall-out from the violent terrorist attack she suffered when she was 10 years old. Is PTSD the sum total of her confusion and lack of stability?
3. Why does her grandmother try to persuade The Bride not to go through with the marriage?
4. Talk about the novel's other characters: Tom, the narrator's brother; Rose, her maid of honor; and The Bride's mother.
5. The Bride observes, "I get the sense that the number of people who are married is not equal to the number of people that give the institution much thought." Care to unpack that statement? What does she mean? Do you think she's correct?
6. As you were reading, what did you want The Bride to do: marry or not marry?
7. Is the ending a satisfying one?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Parakeet (Bertino) - Discussion Questions
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