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 Rewrites:
1. How does the personality of Neil Simon come through in this memoir? How would you describe him? What about him do you find admirable?
2. Simon ponders the roots of humor: ''No one, he says, has yet determined, to my satisfaction, what elements of nature, genetics and environment have to combine to form a man or woman with a keen sense of humor." But Simon himself is a consummate humorist! Do you want to take a stab at what makes people laugh? Does humor come from, say, the mundane in life...or the unexpected? Give it a try! Think of something funny, and try to figure out why.
3. What role did Simon's family play in his artistic develop-ment? Talk about his home life, his parents and their marriage, as well as his brother. (Some good ones: the suitcase-in-the hallway...and his brother's attempt to get him to a brothel.)
4. Simon paints wonderful portraits of famous people who have populated the world of entertainment. Which people or episodes did you most enjoy, find humorous, or surprising?
5. Talk about the long road Simon plodded in order to become a successful playwright.
6. What was it about Hollywood that Simon disliked and that spurred him on to writing for the stage?
7. Most authors use their lives as material for their writing— but they also use their writing as a way to examine or give shape to their lives. How does Simon do either or both of those things?
8. What is the significance of the title, "Rewrites"? In what way might it have a double meaning?
9. The book contains some instructions on how to write a play. Talk about some of his tips: "Character is the foundation of the play"; or "We need to see a character change, not just know that he's changed." What are some of the other pointers he provides? What does he mean by them? How might those same ideas be helpful to us as readers of novels?
10. By far the saddest part of the book is the death of his first wife. How does Simon learn to cope with losing her...or does he?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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