Spy (Coelho) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, feel free to use these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion...then take off on your own:

1. After reading Coelho's book, what do you think of Margaretha Zelle AKA Mata Hari? How would you describe her? Do you find her, say, admirable or deeply flawed, astute or devious, manipulated or manipulative (did she use men, or they her)? Did she ever understand the ease with which her power over men could be be demonized?

2. Discuss the views of Mata Hari's contemporaries: how did the society in which she lived see her?

3. What was the evidence was used to accuse and convict Mata Hari?

4. Performing undressed on stage, what does Mata Hari mean when she says, "I was nothing, not even my body. I was just movements communing with the universe." She asks that her attitudes about sexuality and self-expression be taken as universal truths. Do you think they are? If not then, are they now, a century later?

5. How well does Coelho portray the character of his heroine? Is his depiction superficial or does he plumb her depths? Does Mata Hari come to life for you?

6.  Could Mata Hari's life have ended another way? Was her execution inevitable? What about the men who could have stepped forward to free her—why didn't they?

7. Mata Hari was a victim of patriarchy. Do you consider her a proto-feminist, perhaps even a martyr to feminism? Or do you see her as a self-promoter, as someone who led a daring but thoughtlessly reckless life?

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

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