Small Town Sins, by Ken Jaworosky

 

Characters
Nathan Stultz	Callie	Andy
Paula – wife, nurse Lee Lee Roland – affairs, teenager and as an adult   Saved man from burning building Found bag of money	Disfigured at birth Nurse   Gabriella – patient, dying, parents don’t want medicine	Kate – wife, suicide to be with Angie Angie – daughter, Down’s Syndrome, died   Danny – teenage friend who kept him somewhat straight Sophie – younger sister   Father Glynn – child predator, notebooks of photos

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2023 paperback edition.

Nathan:

1.      Did you understand Nathan’s motivation for keeping the money?  Was he in general an honest man?

2.      When he went to the hospital to harm the man he rescued, were you surprised that Paula let him in?  Why do you think she did so?

3.      What did you think about the ending of this story with Paula trying to commit suicide?

Callie:

4.      Do you think Callie surprised herself with all of the crazy things she did on the trip to show Gabriella the ocean?  Would she have been able to do these things on a regular day?

5.      When Callie and Gabriella were talking about kindness, Gabriella asked Callie, “Do you think you should always be a nice person, every single minute of the day, even if you don’t want to be?  And if you don’t want to be nice, but you act nice, is that a kind of lie?” (page 45).  What did you think about this idea?

Andy:

6.      Andy’s best friend, Danny, worked to ensure that his sister, Sophie, could succeed in school and go to college.  All that changed when she was beaten and raped by Slee, who Danny had let into the house with drugs.  When Danny and Andy when to confront Slee and kill him, Danny ended up killed instead.  How did all of this effect Andy and his life?

7.      Andy stole the briefcase from Father Glynn’s car because he thought it contained money.  Instead, he found pornography.  He decided at that moment to kill Father Glynn along with himself.  Was this a positive or negative purpose for his life?

General:

8.      When Callie and Gabriella where driving to ocean, Gabriella said to Callie, “It’s always those little things, huh?’ (page 217) referring to the small memories and joys we have in life.   What “little things” were there in the stories that brought people joy?

9.      Would the characters’ lives have been different it they had lived in a more prosperous location with more opportunities?

10.  How do you think the stories ended?  Did Gabriella make it back to the hospital?  What happened to Callie?  Did Paula survive?  Did Andy commit suicide or decide to live after he heard Angie telling him, “Daddy: The best part about tomorrow is that there will be more things to love,’ (page 245)?

11.  What did you find hopeful or positive in the novel?

12.  What was your reading experience?  Was there any point when you thought you might stop reading?  Were you tempted to skip to the end to see how everything concluded?

13.  Was there any connection among the three stories?  Were you expecting the story lines to somehow converge at some point?  What do you think the author’s creative and thought process was?

14.  This book received a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads and 4.2 on Amazon.  How would you rate the book?  Why?