Ava's Man Discussion Guide
For the February pick of the Good Folk Book Club.
Happy Monday Folks,
It was lovely to get to “meet” some of you over Zoom for our first meeting of the Good Folk Book Club! If you want to learn more about the Good Folk Book Club and our February book pick, Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg, see here.
If you missed our first meeting, that’s all good— you can read along at your own page using the discussion guide below (created by our wonderful book club leader, Ren Carroll!) and join us for our March meeting, where we will be discussing Ava’s Man, as well as our March pick, Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR AVA’S MAN:
In the beginning, how does Rick Bragg establish the “characters” in the book, and why the reader should care about their story?
In what ways does he set the scene in the South and how does it compare to your experience or what you know about the South?
What part of the author's social/cultural identities (male, straight, white) affects how he writes about the South?
How do your identities affect the way you process his view of the South?
For you, does his use of local colloquialisms add to or take away from the book?
How many of these colloquialisms have you heard in your own community/ family?
How often do you see southern/rural colloquialisms used in media (books, movies, TV, etc.) in a similar way to how Bragg uses them in this work?
How accurate do you think Bragg’s depiction of the early 1900s in the Georgia/ Alabama mountains is?
What parts of this book did you question the accuracy around?
Did this book remind you of your own raising or family? If so, how?
What was your favorite portion/ scene of the book? Why?
What aspects of the book did you not like? Why?
Do you think this represented the South and southern people to outside readers accurately? Why or why not?
Do you think this represented the South/ southern people to those outside the region well? Why or why not?
WRITING PROMPTS:
To follow along with our monthly reads we will be providing prompts for self-reflection. These prompts are not mandatory but we encourage you to participate when you can and send the finished product to goodfolksonly@gmail.com or kmc0131@auburn.edu to have your writing included in an upcoming newsletter. Happy writing, folks!
Rick Bragg is known for writing rich family narratives. In Ava’s Man, he describes the life of his maternal grandfather that died before his birth. The language and imagery he uses about his grandfather often paint him as a larger-than-life figure. Think about a person in your life and/or family that you idolized in your youth and would pick to write a novel about. Write a non-fiction, fiction, prose, or poetry piece reflecting on this person. How did this person impact you? What is a time that you remember realizing they are also a human and make mistakes? How do you feel about them as an adult? What would the title of your book about them be? Feel free to answer all or none of these questions in your response and use whatever medium or style best fits your purpose.
Ava’s Man is rich with Appalachian sayings from the area that Bragg grew up in. He uses specific cultural terms like “bluebird morning” that have been used for generations in Georgia and Alabama’s mountains. What are some colloquial words, saying, phrases that you grew up hearing? They don’t have to be Appalachian or even southern but please list them and give an example of how they would be used below.