Last Time I Saw You (Berg)

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Last Time I Saw You:

1. Berg offers portraits of high school "types"—the jock, the cheerleader, the popular kids, the nerds and outsiders. Are her depictions accurate?

2. Which character do you most identify with? Which ones do you find most sympathetic? Which least sympathetic?

3. What do the individual characters want—or hope to achieve —from the reunion? Why are some hesitant to attend?

4. In what ways have the various characters changed over the past 40 years—especially Lester and Mary Alice? Have any other characters truly changed? What have they learned? How have expectations been dashed...or met?

5. One character observes: "Here they are, these people, all these years later just...what? Trying.... Just trying." What does he mean..."just trying" to do what?

6. High school comprises a very short time of our lives; in retrospect, most of us recognize how shallow, cruel, even meaningless, the social heirarchy was. Nonetheless, the memories—the hurts and triumphs—resonate even after 40 years. Why is that? Why are those few short years so potent for so many?

7. If you're "of an age"... or have graduated even just 10 years ago...does Berg's novel ring true to you? Have you attended any of your high school reunions?

8. Does the ending of Berg's novel satisfy you? Are you pleased with how it all turned out?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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