Dying in Style

What to wear: Your favorite shopping outfit. Bring the purse that best symbolizes you.

What to drink: Coffee. Or beer and champagne for both pocketbooks.

What to serve: Brunch, of course, with plenty of eggs, coffee cake and fresh fruit.

The Questions

(1) Josie's best friend is the wealthy Alyce. Josie's income puts her with the working poor. Yet the two women have a deep friendship. Why does Alyce need Josie? Why does Josie need Alyce? How does their relationship work? Is this an equal relationship?

(2) Did you ever want to be a mystery shopper? Do you still want to be one after reading "Dying in Style"?

(3) How does Josie see herself and her job? Is shopping a trivial activity for her? Often, women shoppers are dismissed as silly or contemptible. Is this Josie's attitude?

(4) How do you see Josie's relationship with her mother, Jane? Josie depends on her mother for help, but is this a healthy dependence? Why does Jane blackmail Josie into dating Stan?

(5) Relationships are important in "Dying in Style." How do you see the relationships between mothers and daughters, between female friends, between men and women? Which are the most successful, in your opinion?

(6) What is Josie's view of men? Nate was her demon lover. Andy and Stan are the safe marriage prospects. Do you see her romance with Josh becoming serious? Do you believe men are either dull or dangerous?

(7) Is Danessa a powerful woman or a weak one? What is her relationship with Serge?

(8) What about Amy the Slut? Do you have any sympathy for her?

(9) Josie rejects the privileged suburban society for herself, but wants its perks for her daughter, Amelia. Is Josie right to push Amelia to attend a school for privileged children when she resents the rich? If Amelia becomes the woman her mother wants her to be, will this change their relationship? Will Josie be proud of her daughter or disappointed in her?

(10) Jewelry and purses are seen as frivolous, but they have serious meaning in "Dying in Style." What does Danessa's amber necklace symbolize? What about the snakeskin belt? What is the significance of purses for women? Are they more than some place to keep your wallet?

(11) When Josie discovers that her mother has a problem, she acts quickly and decisively. Should Josie have searched her mother's house? Did she violate her mother's privacy? Does Jane have the right to spend her money as she pleases, or is her spending a symptom of a troubled mind?

(12) Josie says, "If the end of the world was announced tomorrow, supermarkets would be stripped of eggs, coffee cake and fresh fruit, as suburban women fought to fix their final brunch. Brunch had replaced chicken soup for comfort. It covered any social event from baby showers to funerals." Do you agree with Josie? Do you serve brunch, and if so, why and when?

(13) Do you think some murder victims invite their violent ends? Were you surprised by Danessa's killer? What about Serge's?

(14) The wealthy and flamboyant Serge had a fatal cheap streak. Have you known people like this? Can you be too frugal? Do you think the rich or the poor have bigger cheap streaks?

(15) When Alyce becomes Josie's lawyer, their relationship changes. What does this say about women who have a profession? Do you think women with careers are taken more seriously? Is that attitude changing in any way?

(16) Questions of money and social class run through this novel. Alyce is clearly uncomfortable in some of Josie's low-rent neighborhoods, and Josie sometimes feels out of place in Alyce's genteel world. Do you believe America has a class system? How would you define it? Where do you think you fit in - or do you?