Sarah Jane Discussion Questions

Sarah Jane Discussion Questions 1. Sarah Jane Pullman’s job is to bring justice to her town as its sheriff, but her idea of justice is not always strictly in accordance with the rule of law. How would you characterize her moral scheme? Does she make any choices in the book that disturbed you, or did you feel what she did was always justified?

2. What does the novel tell us about PTSD? How does it shape not only the characters and their choices for their own lives but also the town around them? How does the trauma some characters carry end up causing trauma in others? Do you think it is possible as humans to stop ripples of trauma, or is this just part of the human condition? Does Sarah Jane stop more ripples than she causes?

3. Sarah Jane never tells us where she lives. Does her anonymous town remind you of any you’ve been to?

4. One preoccupation of the novel is how being a cop changes a person. Sarah Jane’s cop boyfriend Bullhead is described as having “started off a good man at heart, I think, once upon a time. Believed in his job, in what he was doing, in himself. But he was like others who deal poorly when things don’t go as they think things should… You could see that in his eyes, sense it coming off his skin like the alcohol haze of a drinker. And it made you sad for the loss of the man he had been.” Do you believe cops are particularly susceptible to the kind of grinding down described here? How does the day-to-day grind affect the different law enforcement officers in the book? How would the job affect you?

5. At one point, Sarah is called upon to resolve a protest at the local high school, where students have assembled against regulation. She helps the principal decide not to involve the police, but instead to open a dialogue. “The fuss was over wearing hoodies or T-shirts with slogans, band imagery, brand names and the like. On the one hand, it did seem silly: This, of all the world’s wrongs, merited protest? On the other, finding some balance between group identification and individuation is how we mature, isn’t it? As self, and as a society.” What do you think about this conflict? Do you agree with the last statement, that discovering where we are individuals and where we are part of a group is our core struggle? How are we seeing this topic play out in other, less peaceful forums? When do you think it’s time for law enforcement to step in on these conversations?

6. Why do you think Sarah Jane doesn’t write back to her father?

7. Throughout his career, James Sallis has been described as a writer who defies genre conventions. Sarah Jane features a cop who investigates several crimes, including murders, but it is not a conventional murder mystery. What genre or genres does the book fit into for you? Do you think genre is important to discuss when describing a book? Do you think genre labels help attract readers or do you think they limit readership?