Discussion questions for Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

1. Did you like one sister more than the other?  Did your perspective on the sisters change when Chaurisse became the narrator?  Were there any points that you wish you could have had both sisters’ perspectives on (e.g. the scene in the gas station)?
2. Jones says that the “novel is mostly talked about as a book about bigamy, but it’s really a story about being a daughter”?  Do you agree?
3. What did you think of the title?  Chaurisse refers to beautiful girls as “silver” and there are references to the hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow’’.  In an NPR interview, Jones says she thinks of Dana as a silver sparrow, being beautiful but the “least among us”.
4. In the NPR interview, Jones says that she tried to make James a complicated character, being “seductive, but deeply flawed.”  Do you think she succeeded?  In what ways?
5. Both sisters have relationships with a boy/man who won’t consistently recognize them in public?  For Dana this is perhaps somewhat understandable, given her role as a secret child, but why would Chaurisse accept this?
6. When the truth came out, did you think that James might choose Gwen and Dana?  Why or why not?
7. What did you think about James?  Do you think he’s an evil or all-around bad guy?  Would you be team anti-James or team neutral-James?
8. The reviewer for The Guardian comments that “what really draws [Chaurisse and Dana] together is their deep, overlapping loneliness”.  What do you think of that assessment?
9. Anita Shreve, reviewing the book for The Washington Post asks “Which family does [James] love most? The family to whom he confides everything, thus hurting it in the process? Or the family to whom he tells nothing, allowing it to live in ignorant normality, but always with the possibility of a terrible surprise?”  What is your answer to her question?
10. Jones also says that “Gwen’s rationales really intrigued” her.  What did you think about Gwen’s rationale for:
    1.  marrying a man she knew was already married?
    2. “surveilling” Chaurisse and Laverne?
    3. carrying on the deception for so long?
    4. finally forcing the issue?
    5. forcing the issue so publicly?

For more questions, check out the author’s resources, or resources from Reading Group Guides or the National Endowment for the Arts.

Want to share your own questions with us?