BOOK CLUB
KIT
About this Guide
The questions, discussion topics, and other material that follow are intended to enhance your group’s conversation of Elizabeth McKenzie’s The Dog of the North, an exploration of the power of death, family, and self-discovery, equal parts comical and sincere, as one woman on the brink of multiple losses—personal and professional—finds herself in the most unlikely of circumstances.
1.
Why do you think the book is titled after Burt’s van? What does this suggest about the significance of his and Penny’s relationship amidst all the other people she spends time within the book?
2.
Penny’s narration often pairs more serious moments with deadpan or absurdist humor. How did that affect your own emotional response to those scenes? What does it suggest about Penny’s personality or coping mechanisms for difficult emotions—or, perhaps, the nature of life itself?
3.
How does Penny’s introduction to Kweecoats—his fur on the sleeping bag— manifest in the rest of their time together, as well as how other people show up in her life (through what they leave behind)?
4.
What were some of the more surprising aspects of Penny’s story in your opinion? How did they affect your ability to relate to her circumstances?
5.
Penny reflects about the minimart clerk, who gives her a free soda after Burt’s episode in the store: “It was uncanny how a stranger might know what you needed better than you did yourself” (63). How is it particularly relevant to Penny, and why in this moment in her story?
6.
What was your opinion of Penny’s flashback to speaking with Dr. FountainGoose about Gaspard when she was ten years old? How would you evaluate the appropriateness of that conversation, given the doctor’s credentials, as well as what actually happened to Penny?
What challenges in Penny’s relationship with Margaret come up during their visit in Australia? Did you feel they both got closure on their parents’ disappearance?
8.
Dale and Burt similarly have an unusual sibling relationship. How does their connection evolve over the course of the novel, especially as we see them both communicating with Penny separately?
9.
There’s a range of abilities and personalities on display in the book when it comes to older people—Arlo, Pincer, etc. What do these individuals suggest about how one’s vitality, body and mind, changes over time, compared to some of the younger characters? Who seems most youthful in the book, regardless of age?
10.
What did you make of the arrangement between Pincer and Dr. Hiroshi Matsumoto? Is there a greater significance to the novel on the whole of his desire to be studied for the effects of the Nagasaki bombings?
11.
How is law enforcement—in the U.S. and Australia—represented in the novel? Do they offer any meaningful support to the various, albeit unusual circumstances that transpire?
12.
Do you feel that Penny was able to resolve her feelings and uncertainty regarding her parents’ disappearance? How did that trauma manifest in her thoughts and behaviors throughout the book?
13.
Penny reflects that as a child that she felt as if “tagging along” with her family, having a different father from Margaret (270). Do you think she finds somewhere to belong by the end of the novel? If so, where and with whom?
14.
What differences (and similarities) did you notice between the cultures of the different locations in the novel? Specifically, compare what happens in the U.S. versus Australia. Consider what Penny reflects about her parents’ decision to move there: “But it’s also possible to say that they went to denounce the American Dream and avoid the various unpleasant people who had damaged their lives” (6). Does Penny find herself in the same mindset as she begins her various travels?
15.
Have you and your family gone through any similar experiences upon the death of loved ones? What needs to recalibrate when individuals are no longer physically present?
7.
Suggested Further Reading
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Severance by Ling Ma
The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Joan is Okay by Weike Wang