Lost Memory of Skin (Banks)

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 Lost Memory of Skin (Caution: PLOT SPOILERS ahead):

1. What do you make of the Kid? Do you find him sympathetic or unlikable? What is the nature of his sex offense? Does the punishment fit the crime?

2. What role did the Kid's mother play in his life and developing sex addiction? To what degree is she responsible or not responsible?

3. What is the symbolic significance of the Adam and Eve story? How does the story of Eden and the serpent tie into the Kid's sojourn in the Panzecola Swamp?

4. How do you feel about the Professor? In what ways is he similar to the Kid (starting with the fact that their last names are the same)? Is it difficult for you to get beyond his size to find him sympathetic—does his weight affect how you view him? Why might the author have chosen to create the Professor as an obese character?

5. Gloria, the Professor's wife, suggests that sex offenders are "just programmed to do what they do. You know, hardwired." The Professor disagrees, responding:

If, as it appears, the proportion of the male population who commit these acts has increased exponentially in recent years...then there's something in the wider culture itself that has changed..., and these men are like the canary in the mine shaft.... [It's] as if their social and ethical immune systems, the controls over their behavior, have been somehow damaged or compromised (p.125-hardcover).

Later, we learn that the Professor intends to cure the Kid of his pedophilia....

He intends to cure the Kid by changing his social circumstances. By giving him power. Autonomy. He believes that one's sexual identity is shaped by one's self-perceived social identity, that pedophilia...is about not sex, but power...about one's personal perception of one's power (p. 159-hardcover).

—Who do you think is correct? Is the Professor correct in his belief that pedophilia is a societal condition and curable? Or is Gloria correct in that pedophilia is hardwired into the brain and incurable?

6. What is the ongoing significance of Captain Kydd's treasure map? What is the Professor's purpose in telling the Kid about the buried treasure...and why does he provide him with a phony map?

7. Why do you think the Professor estranged from his parents? Why does he turn away at the last moment when he has driven all night to see them?

8. What symbolic role does weather play in this novel, especially the hurricane?

9. Do you believe the Professor's story? Do you believe he is murdered...or that he commits suicide? Does it matter? Why do you think the author has left his death an open question?

10 . The Writer tells the Kid whether something is true, or not, doesn't matter:

What you believe matters, however. It's all anyone has to act on. And since what you do is who you are, your actions define you. If you don't believe something is true simply because you can't logically prove what's true, you won't do anything. You won't be anything (p. 398-hardcover).

a) Do you agree with the Writer's philosophy? Or are you skeptical—like the Kid, who says, "If everything's a lie, then nothing's true."
b) Where do you think Russell Banks comes down on the question? In other words, does the weight of the novel suggest that the Writer or the Kid is correct?

11. Why does the Kid shy away from, even reject, Dolores's maternal kindness?

12. What role do pets play in this novel? Why is the Kid so devoted to them? Is there a difference between his attachment to Iggy at the beginning...and Annie and Einstein later on?

13. What is the significance of the book's title?

14. Why are the three main characters referred to as the Kid, the Professor, the Writer—their names aren't used, although the secondary characters are named.

15. Why does the Kid return to the Causeway at the end? And why does he decide to move his tepee out of the light and closer to the overhang of the Causeway?

16. The kid makes a distinction between shame and guilt. He comes to the conclusion that he is guilty but that he need not feel shame. Talk about his distinction. Do you agree with his assessment?

17. Should the Kid have returned the money to the Professor's wife or not? Did learning, later, that the Professor left the family well provided for affect your answer?

18. What revelation does the Kid undergo at the end of the novel. What future do you see for him?

19. Some reviewers claim that Banks hedges the very issue he wants to explore in his book by not making his protagonist a hardcore sex offender—that, because the Kid has engaged in a lighter offense, the author hasn't truely grappled with the hard issue of habitual sex offenders. What do you think?

20. Has your understanding, or your opinion, of sex offenders changed after reading Lost Memory of Skin? Is their position as society's untouchables fair or unfair, deserved or undeserved?

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

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