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 start a discussion for Stars Over Sunset Boulevard:
1. Consider the two protagonists, Violet and Audrey. How are they different (or similar?) in their personalities, their dreams, and in the way each reacts to life's events? Did you admire or sympathize with one over the other? Did your attitudes toward either change by the novel's end?
2. What secrets was each woman hiding...and why?
3. What did you learn about the behind-the-scenes filming of Gone With the Wind? Did you know, for instance, that Vivienne Leigh was cast only after filming had begun?
4. Are there parallels between what happens in the film...and what happens in the novel? Consider, for example, destroying the draperies to make a dress—and the way Violet uses that analogy to justify her own choices.
5. Consider this quote: "Unhappiness has an insatiable appetite. It does not care what it might have to kill to feed its cravings.” What does that mean? If you were in either woman's shoes, how much would you be willing to sacrifice to attain your lifelong dreams?
6. Much of the story is taken up with the idea of beauty and desire. Locate and discuss passages in the book that relate to those concepts. For instance...
Beauty is all about perception, Vi. Your own perception is right up there with everyone else's. True...or not? Is our concept of beauty truly subjective? How much of our own lives, as well as the lives in this story, is driven by the attainment of beauty?
Don't ever sleep with a man to get what you want, because you wont' get it. He will, but you won't." Does that maxim hold true today?
7. Was the ending a suprise or predictable?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution.)