The Ambassador’s Son Discussion Questions

Below are some ideas for discussion in your group.

1. There are real people such as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and James Michener who are characters in this novel. Do you think this is disrespectful?
2. Do you think Homer captured the personalities of young JFK and Nixon? Were you surprised to learn the two served so close together in the war?
3. In his history sequence at the front of the novel, Homer calls this a story of love in a time of war. Do you think this story could be considered a love story?
4. What kinds of love are shown in the novel?
5. Why do you think Penelope loved Josh Thurlow? Besides love, what did she want from him? Why did Josh not return her love?
6. What did you think of Penelope? Would you like to have her as a friend?
7. Why do you think Phimble disliked Kennedy so much?
8. Do you think Kennedy and Nixon could have been friends? What did they have in common? What was different about them?
9. Why you think Kennedy felt such guilt over the fate of his sister Rosemary? Why do you think his father had Rosemary lobotomized?
10. What did Fisheye and the Japanese pilot Ichikawa-san have in common? Do you think they could eventually have been friends? Why or why not?
11. Did you think Dave ,the megapode added anything to the story? Did you enjoy reading about him?
12. What did you think of the Coast-watcher Whitman? Was he in any way a sympathetic character?
13. Who was your favorite character in the novel? Why?
14. Josh considers Felicity Markham a “plantation bigot.” Do you agree with that assessment? What are Felicity’s strengths? Her weaknesses?
15. Was David Armistead’s plan to end the war at all realistic? What did you think of him as a character?
16. Had you heard of cargo cults prior to reading this novel? Why did Joe Gimmee think the way he did? Homer says in the epilog that we’re all members of cargo cults, one way or the other. Can you think of an example?
17. If you had lived in the Solomon Islands during World War II and spent a lifetime building your business, would you have run away when the Japanese invaded? Or would you, like Felicity and Whitman, stayed to fight?
18. Did you like the way the story ended? How would you have liked it to end?
19. Did this story have a moral?
20. Are you interested in Josh Thurlow and want to read more about him? Did you read the first Josh Thurlow book, The Keeper’s Son?