Randi is happy to meet with book clubs by phone. If you would like
Randi to visit your book club, please send her an email. If you live in
the Raleigh-Durham area, it may be possible for Randi to meet with your
book club in person. Randi is also available to speak to larger groups,
including both professionals and parents.
Questions
for Book Club Discussion
1. The
book opens with Chase’s description of a dragon that comes into a peaceful
valley. Why do you think the author chose to include this piece?
2. The
author fears that she has turned her son into a “boy made up of lists and
issues” instead of recognizing who he really is. What qualities does Chase
have that make you sympathetic to him? How is he similar to other teen age
boys?
3. Throughout
the book, the author often describes Haley as “small.” How does Haley grow
throughout the book? How does she respond to the events that surround her?
Why do you think the author included so much of Haley’s story when she
wrote about Chase?
4.Why
is information about the author’s past so important to the story of
Chase’s breakdown? How does knowing the family history inform your
understanding of the choices that Randi Davenport made?
5. The
author is interested in how we tend to see mental illness as a failure of
the individual. What examples of this does she provide? Why do you think
we still stigmatize these diseases? How have you seen these “qualities of
a doomed soul” (p. 1) that we
attribute to mental illness in people you have known?
6. The
author comes to understand that the things Chase describes are real to
him, if not to the world. How would you have responded to the events of
the night Chase saw The Executioner?
7. Imagine
that you get up one morning, leave your house for work or school, and
never come home again. Instead, you find yourself in a confusing world
filled with strangers and terrifying images. How do you think you would
react to this? How does Chase react to this? How does his mother react?
8. Why
do you think the young doctors were so eager to give Randi their opinions?
What has been your experience with doctors and trying to engage them in
meaningful conversations?
9. When
Randi learns Chase is so severely psychotic that he may never get better,
she weeps and thinks about how she has not been able to “protect” Chase.
Why does she feel so guilty about this? Is there any way in which she
could have stopped the illness?
10. What
do you think is the average person’s perception of mental disability, as
well as disabilities in general? Where do these views come from? How did
you form your own perceptions?
11. What
similarities does the author see between Chase and Zip? Why do you think
they were so difficult for her to identify?
12. The
old man is able to help Randi and finally secure a place for Chase in a
long-term care facility with a good program. What happens to people who
can’t find treatment and care?
13. How
important are medical definitions such as “seizure” and “schizophrenia”
and “autism?”Do they help or hurt
Chase? Have they helped or hurt anyone in your family? Have you ever felt
that a problem comes from an “error of our ways” (p.10) that simply needs
to be corrected?
14. The
book describes the many ways that our system of care is broken and
byzantine. How do you think we might improve things for people with mental
illness? Where should change start?
