Vintage Affair (Wolff)

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 A Vintage Affair:

1. Describe Phoebe Swift. Has the author drawn her as a fully-developed or a one-dimensional character? Do you find her sympathetic?

2. How responsible is Phoebe for what happened to Emma?

3. What about Phoebe's family—her parents and, in particular, her mother?

4. Which of Phoebe's three romantic interests were you rooting for...and why.

5. Talk about the connection between Therese Bell and Phoebe. What draws them together? What do their losses have in common? Why hasn't Therese shared her story of Monique with anyone over all these years?

6. Were you engaged by the detailed passages about vintage clothing—the style, fabric, and history of fashion?

7. Discuss the role of clothing with regards to a person's emotional/psychological state? Do clothes really make a difference in how people think or feel about themselves? Would you say that clothing reflects or affects a person's inner-self?

8. What is the attraction people have to vintage clothing? Phoebe says, "when you buy a piece of vintage clothing you're not just buying fabric and thread—you're buying a piece of someone's past." Do you wear vintage clothes? If so, is the idea of wearing a piece of someone else's life appealing to you? If you've never purchased vintage clothes, why not?

9. A number of reviewers insist that A Vintage Affair is "NOT just chick lit." First, what is chick-lit and what separates it from so called "serious fiction"; second, do you agree that this book has depth and complexity?

10. Coincidence plays a role in this novel. Does it work as a narrative device: do you accept the story's dependence on chance...or do you find it contrived?

11. Loss and regret are thematic concerns explored in A Vintage Affair. How do those issues play out in the novel? What does Phoebe come to learn by the end—what insights has she gained?

12. Is the book's ending satisfying? Were all the loose ends tied-up? Too much so...or not enough?

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

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