Book Clubs

The Italian Prisoner has been very popular with book clubs. Here are some questions to help get your group’s discussion started. CAUTION: there are spoilers in these questions!

1.     We typically think of New Orleans as French, Spanish, and Creole. If you’ve been to the Crescent City and had a muffuletta at Central Grocery or a cannoli at Brocato’s, you’ve tasted a bit of that Sicilian legacy. Did you know there was a thriving Sicilian population in New Orleans?

2.     Many people are unaware that the Army brought 380,000 German and 51,000 Italian prisoners of war back to the US during World War II. They were housed at vacant military bases all over the country. Were you surprised to learn about that?  

3.     Rose and Marie are best friends, but they’re very different. How does their friendship evolve over the course of the story?

4.     African Americans (including returning Black soldiers) were subject to pervasive shameful discrimination and harsh treatment in Jim Crow America. The author purposely doesn’t identify characters by race—did you realize Irma Jones in the mail room and her husband Melvin are Black? How does the novel touch on this context without getting sidetracked?

5.     As much as Italian immigrants had assimilated by the 1940s, they were still subject to discrimination. How does the author weave in themes of the immigrant experience, mis-treatment, and fear of “the other” during a stressful time in our country’s history? Does Rose’s father’s humiliation resonate with the treatment of immigrants today? 

6.     Life during wartime was full of hardship and anxiety. Were there echoes of these daily challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic? In global conflicts today?

7.     Rose and Marie work at Higgins Industries making the iconic “Higgins boats” President Eisenhower later claimed helped win World War II. From a small workforce of 75 in 1938 making shallow-draft boats for the fishing and oil and gas industry, Higgins grew to over 20,000 people by 1943 and operated seven plants that turned out more than 20,000 boats by the end of the war. The Higgins workforce was the first in New Orleans to be racially integrated, and included un-drafted white men, women, African Americans, the elderly, and handicapped persons. All were paid equal wages according to their job rating. Rose’s story reflects the broader societal changes that were accelerated during the war—women working outside the home for the first time, getting a taste of that independence, contributing, and earning good money. Do you think all those women quietly left their jobs and went back to the kitchen when the men returned? Or was Rose’s desire to keep working realistic?

8.     Anyone who grew up Catholic will recognize the pervasive rituals that are part of Rose’s world. Were you surprised by the revelation that Father Tony was Giovanni’s real father? How did it help explain Rose’s mother’s bitterness?

9.     New Orleans trumpeter and band leader Louis Prima figures prominently into the book, both as a Sicilian-American hero and iconic entertainer. How did music help people cope with the daily challenges of life during wartime? How does music still help us get through tough times in our own lives?

10.  Were you cheering for Rose to accept Sal’s proposal? Or did you applaud her choice, heartbreaking though it was?

11.  Who was the real Italian prisoner?