A couple of book clubs have read Leora’s Dexter Stories, then gather to discuss it. One club read all three Leora books and voted this one their favorite. Here are questions at the end of this book to help start conversation about those Great Depression days:
Questions to Ponder
1. Leora was blessed by having the support system of family, even her parents and adult siblings living nearby. At what points in the story does she have to let go of a family member? How do those losses affect her? What does that say about her character?
2. Marilynne Robinson, through a character in her book Gilead, says, “It is a good thing to know what it is to be poor, and a better thing if you can do it in company.” Do you agree that it’s a good thing to know what it is to be poor?
3. A character in Willa Cather’s My Antonia says, “But, you see, a body never knows what traits poverty might bring out in ‘em.” Having lived through the challenges of 2020 (Covid-19, hurricanes, a derecho storm in the Midwest, an especially contentious election), what traits have those brought out in you?
4. In Song of the Lark, Willa Cather says, “The fear of the tongue, that terror of little towns. . . . “ If you’ve lived in a small town, what are the drawbacks? What about the benefits?
5. “. . .[T]he depression that began in 1929. . . came on harder and faster, it engulfed a larger part of the population, it lasted much longer, and it did far more and far worse damage than any before it.”
In Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, Melton Meltzer said that no one can understand America today without knowing something about the Great Depression of the 1930s. Even the lives of those who suffered through it are different because of that disaster, he said. “The deepest wounds of the depression were borne by children.”
Do you have family stories that have come down from those Great Depression years?
6. I’ve heard that people tend to collect or even hoard the things they missed out on as children. My mother Doris couldn’t have enough towels and sheets in the linen closet. She also collected dolls. Can you relate to this?
7. There have been times in our history where world events create such an undertow that it affects individual lives. Besides the Great Depression and Covid-19, can you think of other events that have been turning points in your own life?
8. “The way I see it,” says Billie Jo in Karen Kesse’s Newbery Medal Winner Out of the Dust, (one sentence from poetic lines) “hard times aren’t only about money, or drought, or dust. Hard times are about losing spirit, and hope, and what happens when dreams dry up.”
Which do you think is harder: poverty of material things or poverty of spirit?
Leora’s Dexter Stories is also available as an audiobook, done with Virtual Voice. You may listen to a sample of it below the book cover.
You’re certainly blessed to have book clubs reading and discussing–and enjoying and recommending!–your books.
You are so right, Dennis! Amazed and grateful. I also enjoy thinking about possible questions as I work on a manuscript. I’ve got half a dozen already for the next one!
If you’ve lost your spirit, no amount of material things will sustain you.
You are so right, GP. They had each other, and a nearby grandmother.
Poverty of spirit.
In those days it felt like poverty of every kind. They were blessed with family, even nearby grandparents.
Poverty of spirit is indeed a sad thing. With faith in God, love, and the help of family and friends working together, people can overcome great odds. The depression years surely taught many lessons in patience, perseverance, and hard work. My mother always told the stories of how the ‘city cousins’ would come to my great-grandmother’s farm. It was a blessing to share with these cousins. There was always ‘enough’. At least there were always enough potatoes to go around! 🙂 The times were hard and money was scarce, but my mother had the most beautiful stories of her life in that farmhouse…she surely felt so deeply blessed! My mother played with the barn cats and she didn’t have a lot of toys as a child. She did collect some dolls later in life, and she kept them on her dresser! 🙂
Oh Linda, your stories are so compelling. Mom also collected dolls when she was older, probably because she missed out on them. Dad lived on the farm, so he had no stories of going hungry during those days, and his sisters took piano lessons, which was another ache of my mother’s.
Excellent list of questions to prompt discussion! I think poverty of spirit is harder than poverty of material things, although a serious lack of food would lead directly to poverty of spirit.
I think you’re right. Those years certainly molded the Wilsons into a close-knit family.
During the Great Depression, families like the Wilsons may have had to put a lot of water in their soup, but many had a powerful bond with one another and a strong belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because they had no “things” to worship. Great discussion questions, Joy. 🙂
Amen, Nancy!
The is must be a great read, Joy. The Great Depression strongly affected people’s way of thinking. Thank goodness, my wife and I have not endured a depression.
Thank you, Tim. This one is most readers’ favorite Leora book. I wish I’d found one like it when I was still in school so I wouldn’t have avoided history classes all the way through college!