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 Roger's Version:
1. The subject of Roger's Version is the age-old argument between faith and science—and how one can know the existence of God. Talk about the ways in which Updike uses his novel to portray this philosophical debate?
2. Do you find the discussions between Roger and Dale intriguing and enlightening? Or do you find them a heavy-handed drag on the flow of the novel? In other words, were you interested or bored with this book?
3. How does Esther's pregnancy reflect, in a very human way, the theological questions that Kohler and Lambert ponder?
4. Consider the parallels of this novel with Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850): the names Roger (Chillingworth), (Dimmes)Dale and (H)Esther (Prynne) are clues.
5. Is Roger's "version" the only version in this story? Could there be other versions as well? Can Roger be trusted as a reliable narrator?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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