1. The book is a novel of growing up, but a different kind of novel from the usual run. What is the novel REALLY about as Malcolm Reiner describes and analyzes his own growing up? Does his growing up symbolize something beyond itself?

2. The novel is very much concerned with the subject of time and therefore with the subject of history. Does it end up providing a theory of history? A definition of history? Where and how?

3. Why are there pictures throughout the book?

4. The novel is replete with symbols of various kinds and sorts. The largest is probably the symbolism of both the farm's and the town's gradual disappearance altogether by book's end. What are its meanings?

5. The book may seem pessimistic, almost hopeless, to some readers. But its author maintains that his novel is also optimistic and provides or creates elements of the positive and of hopefulness. Does it?

6. In the following exchange in an interview , the author argued that literature, if it's to be meaningful, has the obligation to tell the truth "about the nature of our lives within a state of existence." Does his own novel succeed in realizing that kind of truth?