1. Do you see ways in which Dr. Tom More is much like a 20th century Job?

2. Tom More talks of “depressions and elations and morning terrors”  (Indeed, for all of them morning is deep darkness; then they recognize the terrors of deep darkness.  Job 24:17)  Am I alone in finding consolation in knowing that “morning terrors” happen to others? 

3. Have you noticed the manner with which Percy has saturated the text with Biblical references and language?  (I was never one for collegiate drinking games, e.g. “Hi Bob!”,  but one could make a sugar saturated game with one’s Easter basket by popping one jelly bean for each biblical treasure embedded in the text!)

4. I recently read a comment on another blog in which the commenter draws some parallels between Percy and Kurt Vonnegut.  I felt somewhat vindicated by this, since I was a heavily into Vonnegut in my high school years and still count “Breakfast of Champions” as one of my favorite books, alongside “Love in the Ruins”.  Vonnegut has his own jaundiced view of life and humanity, and though “Breakfast of Champions” never fails to make me laugh, it is missing the ultimate optimism and movement of Grace of Percy’s work.  Both books are dystopian humor created around the same pivotal time in modern history – does anyone else care to compare and contrast these two books?

5. Though there are cultural references that make this book outdated (Lawrence Welk, Perry Como and Howard Johnsons would need explanation to any of my children and their crowd), what do you think of the many things that could easily be rooted in the year 2012?  For example SOUP, “Christianity without God”, LEFTPAPASANE, The Knotheads, and the celebration of Longhu6?