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Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

Jimmy's Girl

1. In the beginning of the novel, Emily's son Jack tells her "You're never too old for anything, Mom." Do you think this is true? Can you be too old for some things?

2. Do you think it acceptable for married people to think or have fantasies about their first loves? Is it acceptable for people to act on fantasies about their first loves?

3. In the early chapters of the novel, both Jimmy and Emily refer to each other as "something" that was theirs. Does this suggest that Jimmy and Emily might be thinking of each other as things from their past instead of actual people? If so, does it relate to any of the actions that either character makes as they get to know each other again?

4. How much or how little of the connection between Emily and Jimmy lies at an artistic level?

5. Are Emily's moves from one art form to another as she ages in this novel symbolic of her emotional growth? Why or why not?

6. How important is the cultural backdrop of the 1960s and 1970s to Jimmy's Girl?

7. How would the novel have changed if the present day found Emily living a working class existence and Jimmy living a life of affluence? Does the relative wealth or lack thereof in either character fundamentally affect the story?

8. Are some of Emily's actions in the novel forms of punishment directed at her husband? Does Emily at some level resent Peter?

9. Do you think Peter's reaction to Emily's trip is supportive? What do you think is motivating Peter: Jealousy? Fear? Anger?

10. Are there any signs of the detachment between Jimmy and his father present in Jimmy's relationship with his daughter, Clancy?

11. At the close of the novel, have Emily and Jimmy made the right choice? How would things be different if Emily and Jimmy had chosen differently?

Jimmy's Girl
by Stephanie Gertler

  • Publication Date: February 1, 2001
  • Hardcover: 274 pages
  • Publisher: Dutton Adult
  • ISBN-10: 0525945652
  • ISBN-13: 9780525945659