1. The three women who hold center stage in this novel are all mothers and daughters. Do you think their inability to get along stems from being too different, as Elena insists, or being too much alike?

2. Would you call Beverly a good mother? Is Suzanne? Is it possible for a woman to be a "working mother" and a good mother? How can we evaluate how well a child turns out? By accomplishments? Values? Personality? Happiness?

3. Suzanne is an example of a woman in "the sandwich generation," caught between caring for an aging parent and her child. What are its effects on her? What alternatives does she have?

4. The incident we slowly uncover in Elena's past has had a tremendous impact on her mental and emotional states. How do you think a person can overcome a trauma of that magnitude? Do you think Elena has by the end of the novel? If so, what has changed for her?

5. Who are the men in this novel? Are any of them admirable? None of the women in the novel has a stable relationship with a man. Why not? Do you think any of them can?

6. Who is responsible or culpable in the love affair between Elena and Marta's husband Jim. Elena insists she "came on to him." How do you view the situation? How can vulnerable young women be made wiser without learning in the "school of hard knocks"?

7. Perhaps the toughest question in the novel is how to care for Beverly. It is one most women face as their parents age. The book is especially effective in revealing Beverly's perspective, even when she can't communicate it to others. Knowing that, was there another way to handle her care? Could there have been a different end for her?

8. Piercy doesn't flinch when she throws the reader into the midst of the emotional inferno sparked by Beverly's plea to help her die. How is the request consistent with her character? Is it ultimately a selfish thing to ask...or the right thing? Did Suzanne and Elena make the best choices?

9. There are a number of guns -- and guns going off -- in this book. Not stated explicitly, but there nonetheless, is the controversy over gun ownership. Suzanne and Marta both believe they need to own a gun because of their work, yet both use the gun, not for protection, but as an outlet for their emotions. Discuss how they do this, and discuss whether owning a gun, when all is balanced out, is a necessity or a tragedy waiting to happen.

10. Change is not the same as growth. All the characters in this book change, but which of them grows? Who is "stronger in the broken places" by the end of the book?