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Miriam The Medium Discussion questions |
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1. There are times that Miriam feels that her dead mother is speaking through Cara who looks so much like Miriam's mother. Did you ever have the eerie sensation that someone who had passed over was communicating with you through someone else? Has this novel changed your ideas of the afterlife? What are your ideas? How does this book affect your belief or lack of belief in psychic phenomenon? 2. Throughout "Miriam the Medium", different characters chafe against one another in either an effort to forge their own identity--or escape the one they feel saddled with. Miriam goes against her Bubbie's teachings. Cara goes against Miriam's lessons about her gift. What is the cost to each character? Have you ever had major consequences for going against your family's traditions and mores? 3. Miriam's psychic gift is the catalyst for much of the action. Why do you think Shapiro had Miriam be able to tell everyone's fortunes but her own and her own families? 4. Why do you think Shapiro set a novel about mediumship and identity in the wealthy modern-day suburb of Great Neck, New York? Does Miriam feel at home in her town? Why or why not? Does this change in the course of the novel? If so, how? 5. Shapiro weaves issues about Jewish identity --and attempts to suppress it--through the book. Rory is a child of Holocaust survivors, Miriam was the child of pogrom survivors. How do you think these events effected their attitudes towards life? What do you think Shapiro is trying to say about suppressing any kind of identity, be it religious or psychic? 6. Shapiro explores the different ways mothers--and motherly figures--relate to daughters, both with Bubbie and Miriam, Miriam and her mother, and Miriam and her own daughter Cara. By the end of the book, which mothers have connected with which daughters--and why? What do you think Shapiro is saying about this most primal human bond? 7. "Miriam The Medium" is really about trusting yourself--who you are, and who you are meant to be. How does that theme weave through Miriam's life, Cara's? How does "trusting oneself" get distorted in Rory's life? |
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