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 Devotion: A Memoir:
1. Briefly, and cogently, explain what Dani Shapiro is searching for? What is she afraid of? Does her quest resonate with you, do you identify with her? Do you think medications are called for?
2. Why does Shapiro feel so little connection to the Jewish Orthodox faith of her youth? What about you—have you continued to practice the faith in which you were brought up? Why or why not?
3. How did her parents shape, or at least affect, Shapiro's life, perhaps bringing her to the point where she is now? What was Dani's relationship to each parent? How have their deaths affected her? In what way is her struggle with her faith bound up with with her parents?
4. Talk about Shapiro's attitude toward ritual—the chants, prayers and observances. How does she define ritual and what role does she wish it to play in her life?
5. What is the difference between religion...faith...and spirituality? Can you have any one without the other two?
6. It is suggested in Devotion that while answers may not exist, asking the questions is important. Do you find that advice unhelpful, even a bit too pat? Or do you agree that asking questions is part of spiritual growth?
7. What does Shapiro's practice of Buddhist and Hindi rituals add to her life? Why does she turn to those faiths?
8. During her Master Level Energy Work with Sandra, Dani says she had "entered a place beyond belief." What does she mean by that remark? Has that ever happened to you?
9. What does Shapiro mean when she says that "there is value in simply standing there whether the sun is shining, or the wind whipping all around"?
10. In the course of this memoir, what does Shapiro learn or come to understand—how does she grow?
11. Pick out passages in the book that strike you as significant ...either personally, as they apply to your life, or generally, in a larger, metaphysical sense. Read them outloud and discuss why they are meaningful to you.
12. How much in this book did you find relates to you personally? How many times, if at all, did you go ah-ha! while reading? Do you feel a sense of connection with Dani Shapiro? Or do her experiences have little in common with your own beliefs and life?
13. Do you like the book's structure—it's short chapters that read almost like essays or meditations? Are there certain chapters you enjoyed reading most? What about the slow pace of the memoir...did you want it to move more quickly, or did you appreciate its slow, meditative quality?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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