Portable Veblen (McKenzie)

Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're made available. In the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to kick off a discussion for The Portable Veblen...then take off on your own:

1. Describe Veblen Amundsen-Hovda. What do you think of her?

2. Describe Paul Vreeland. What do you think of his character? Is he sympathetic? If you didn't find him so at first, did you change your mind by the end of the novel? Or not.

3. Talk about Veblen and Paul's relationship. How are the two different from one another—consider the disparity between their values, desires and approaches to life. Why are they drawn to each another? What do you predict for the long-term?

4. Both Veblen and Paul have complicated families. Talk about the parents, and Justin, and the roles they play in this book. Do you find them funny or irritating...or what? Is there a "villain" among the bunch? Or not really.

5. At one point, when talking of Veblen and her mother, Paul tells Veblen:

Somehow I got the feeling she was jealous of you and that you try to avoid having her feel that way because it ruptures the equilibrium you're desperate to maintain for some reason. And that maybe you feel like you have to have a strange life so that you don't surpass her.

Is Paul correct in his assessment? Veblen thinks at first that he might be right, but then thinks, no, he's not. What do you think?

6. Okay...talk about the squirrels. What is Veblen attached to them? What does her relationship with the particular squirrel reveal about her? Is it part of the book's charm ...or a gag that feels drawn-out, over-the-top? Up to you.

7. The book is described as funny, even hilarious, and quirky. What do you find funny? Consider, for instance, Veblen's conversations with her mother, or the first time Paul meets Melanie and she hands him the list of all her illneses she's preapred in advance. Or dropping off the package in the park, the "errand" that Paul's parents undertake when Veblen first meets them.

8. In what way is the book more than a love story? In addition to, say, its critique of the military-pharmaceutical complex, what are some of its other concerns?

9. One of the conflicts in the book is the consideration of marriage vs. independence. How do those competing ideas play out in the book? Where do you fall on the subject?

10. In considering Veblen's eccentricity and her father's madness, McKenzie seems to be blurring the distinctions between the two. Where do you think she draws the line?

11. Consider Veblen's name and her namesake, Thorstein Veblen. Why is Veblen (the heroine) drawn to Veblen (the scholar-writer)? In what way does the latter reflect this work's thematic concerns?

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

top of page (summary)