Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter (Larson)

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 start a discussion for Rosemary:

1. How much did you know about Rosemary Kennedy before reading this book? What surprised you the most about her history...and about the Kennedy family?

2. Talk about young Rosemary—before her symptoms became so severe? What was she like as a child and as a young woman?

3. What role did the Kennedy parents play in their daughter's life, and what was its effect on her. How did she interact with her siblings?

4. Given the advances in treatment of mental disorders, how would doctors diagnose Rosemary's disorder today? How would her treatment be different? Were other options available back in the 1930s and 40s?

5. Why did Joseph Kennedy choose not to reveal Rosemary's lobotomy to the family? What moral issues, if any, are at stake in both making the decision to lobotomize and in keeping it secret?

6. Talk about the quality of Rosemary's life following her lobotomy? Why did no one visit her for more than two decades?

7.  What do you think of Joseph Kennedy, his ambitions and obsessions?

8. Talk about Eunice Kennedy and her commitment to improving the lives of those with mental illness. How familiar were you with her work?

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

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