1. Based on the results of his and Winton’s experiment, did Friedrich have a moral imperative to pursue the development of GKD?

2. What obligation, if any, do you believe the conductors of experiments like Will and Bunny’s owe to their test subjects? Do you know the guidelines for testing the psychoactive drugs so widely prescribed today?

3. How might the events of the novel be altered if Will knew that Bunny had dosed him with GKD at the conclusion of their testing on rats?

4. What do the parrots as a group --- and Gray in particular --- represent in the novel?

5. Besides Casper, are there any other characters for whom something could be said to serve as both their “cure and the poison”?

6. Why do you think Casper chose not to drown Zach? Was that his initial intention when he escaped? Do you believe he killed Jack?

7. Have you, like teenage Zach, ever wondered if you were crazy? Do you think it’s more “normal” to wonder if you’re crazy or to be certain that you’re sane?

8. Zach takes up fly-fishing because, he claims, it was “the only part of my father’s life my mother did not feel the need to share” (p. 259). Would the Friedrichs have made better parents if they had been less happy as a couple?

9. Did Casper ultimately attain his desired revenge on Friedrich? Do you think that such a desire, on Casper’s part, is morally justifiable?

10. Are today’s psychopharmaceuticals a poison or a cure?

11. What is it about Will that makes him a successful psychologist and a disappointing father?

12. How did you read the meaning of the last line of the novel?