Book Club Questions
If you could have chosen to read the perspective of another character in the book, whose would you have chosen and why?
If you had the opportunity to ask your father, mother, or grandparent any question about his or her past, what would you ask?
What about Rita’s past influenced her own mothering style? What about Rita’s past contributed to Leslie’s and Mikaela’s determination and competitive spirits?
Do you consider Stashik and Maria Grajolski to be heroes and if so, why? Who were the other “upstanders” in this story?
Would you have invited Rita’s family to hide in your home? How close to your inner circle would they have had to be? What do you think you would have done in that situation?
Do you suspect that the impact of the Holocaust will diminish as the years go by? Will future generations be less affected by their ancestor’s experiences?
Why are children from the same family impacted differently by trauma that their parents experienced? What traumatic event in your parent’s life, or your own, impacted you or one of your children?
What is the significance of telling the story from the perspectives of three generations? Do you believe that the cycle of trauma explored in Bending Toward the Sun will inevitably continue beyond the third generation?
How do you believe Rita’s relationships—with her husband, children, friends—would have been different were it not for the Holocaust? What key event that you experienced altered one of your primary relationships?
What lessons can we take from the Holocaust to better the world today?
What can we learn from Rita’s story and the lessons of the Holocaust to inform the way we combat rising anti-Semitism, and hate crimes in general, in the world today? How should these same lessons inform our view on the rise of dictators in the world today, and the way they should be confronted?
If you had the same traumatic experiences as Rita, would be able to forgive the Nazis for the crimes they committed? Would you feel differently if you were the child of parents who had been the victims of genocide?