Discussion Questions forThe Good Lord Bird by James McBride
- Were you familiar with John Brown and the events at Harpers Ferry before reading the book? Has the fictional retelling changed your perceptions of John Brown as he relates to American history?
- The New York Times’s reviewer call the the book “uproarious”. In the abstract, a funny story about slavery might not seem possible. McBride himself calls it a book of “caricature”. How does the author bring humor to a subject not typically written about in this tone? Is he successful? What does humor allow us to contemplate about history that we might not have thought otherwise?
- NPR’s reviewer wrote: “Although Onion is a child of 10 when we meet him, as a committed ne’er-do-well he is difficult to embrace.” Did you find Henry to be a sympathetic character? A good narrator?
- McBride earned his Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University. The Columbia Magazine’s reviewer describes the book as “unpretentious, very funny, and totally endearing.” Do you agree with this description?
- Have you seen Showtime’s mini-series based on The Good Lord Bird? What changes did they have to make to bring the book to the screen? Did you feel like it was a good adaptation?
- The Good Lord Bird won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2013. The other finalists were The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon, and Tenth of December by George Saunders. Have you read any of these other books? Would you have given the National Book Award to McBride’s book?
For more questions, check out the publisher’s resources.