For Reading Groups

  Lying with Strangers:  For Reading Groups

© Copyright James Grippando 2005.  All rights reserved.

 

Isn’t it about time that your reading group read a real page turner?  Here are some discussion topics for Lying with Strangers that are sure to spice up your next meeting.

 

1. What do you think is the meaning behind the title, Lying with Strangers?   Is it about sleeping with people we don’t know?  Deceiving people we only think we know?  Both?  Something else?    

 

1. There are three less-than-perfect marriages in Lying with Strangers:  Payton and Kevin, Payton’s parents, Tony and Jennifer.  Which is the most flawed?  Which is the strongest?  Why?  Does your view change over the course of the story?

 

1. Payton’s mother has an insensitive way of dispensing advice, but she seems to believe that a woman should never marry a man who is less intelligent than she is.  Is there any validity to this view?  Is the "intelligence gap" dangerous to a relationship?  Is it more or less difficult when the woman is smarter than the man?

 

1. Kevin is jealous over Payton’s continued friendship with Gary Varnes because "old lovers can never be just friends."  Is Kevin right?  Even if he’s dead wrong, is it okay for a married man or woman to continue a friendship with an old lover when that relationship really bothers his or her spouse? 

 

1. Did you like Payton?  What didn’t you like about her?  Why do you think she has no real girlfriends?  Is Gary right when he says that she treats him like the girlfriend she doesn’t have?  Could you be friends with a woman like Payton?

 

1. Payton admits to herself that she has been deceptive, but she also knows that she has been deceived.  When reflecting on her mother’s story about losing a baby in childbirth, Payton observes that "[t]here is a strange commonality between lying and being lied to:  they both seem to drain the soul."  What do you think Payton meant by this statement?  Do you agree with it?

 

1. It seems that everyone is ultimately guilty of some level of deception in Lying with Strangers.  Who is the most honest character?  Who is the most dishonest?  

 

1. As Payton learns, the Internet is filled with people pretending to be something or someone they’re not.  Do you have an Internet "chat" experience that you’re willing to share?  Do you know someone who has? 

 

1. The heckler at Kevin’s first book signing tells Kevin that he has "sealed someone’s fate" by writing his novel, even though it is a work of fiction.  Should a writer ever worry about life imitating art?     

 

1. Payton turns to her father for guidance on how to forgive infidelity.  He tells her that it made no difference to him that Payton’s mother told him about her affair.  "Her contrition made it possible for my ego to get out of the way," he says. "But that has nothing to do with forgiveness.  I forgave her because I loved her."  Does it make a difference if the guilty spouse confesses?  Or, as Payton’s father says, does true forgiveness really come down to a question of Do I still love this person, or don’t I?