Sugar Run (Maren) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:

1. We meet Jodi McCarthy at the beginning of Sugar Run as she is released from prison. The novel then moves back and forth between Jodi's past and the present. Talk about Paula's "presence" in the novel, and Jodi and Paula's falling out.

2. This book is very much about the impact of the past on the present, as author Mesha Maren indicated in a Durham (NC) Herald Sun interview. To what extent are any of us able to put our past behind us?

3. Follow-up to Question 2: In the Herald Sun interview, Maren said that we never "outlive" our past sins, but we can "continue to live beyond them." What do you think she means? In other words, what is the  distinction she makes between "outliving" vs. "living beyond" our past?

4. Jodi wants to return to rural West Virginia. Why is she so determined to do so? Do you think it's harder to re-invent yourself in small, rural towns?

5. What attracts Jodi to Miranda? Do you see Jodi and Miranda's relationship as a repeat of Jodi's previous relationship with Paula?

6. How does the author depict both the socio-economic and topographical terrains of her home in West Virginia?

7. Who are some of your favorite secondary characters, and why?

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

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