Discussion Guide for A Thirst For Rain
1. Do you think that Myra was a bad mother, or simply a woman overwhelmed by the pressures of her life and trying to do her best with what she had? How does her inability to see her daughter for the young woman that she is, and not the child that she thinks she is, reflect on her capability as a parent?
2. Do you think that sin inevitably passes from generation to generation? Myra at 17 was as wild, sexually alluring and uncontrollable as her daughter now is, and Rory seems to have inherited his father’s violent responses. Is there any way to halt negative tendencies from being passed down from parent to child?
3. Examine the parent-child relationships between many of the characters, and consider how their lives would have improved had these relationships been different. For example, how would Rory’s life have differed if he felt his father cared about what he had to say? What kind of relationship do you think Myra and her mother had?
4. It has been said that the male characters in A Thirst For Rain are predominantly negative: sexually indiscriminate, selfish, uncaring and violent, and that it is only when they become somehow incapacitated, as in the cases of Jacob and Sebastian, that they become sympathetic. In other words, they have only become ‘nice’ because they have physically or mentally lost the capacity to continue pleasing themselves while hurting others. What do you think?
5. What part does Nature play in the unfurling of the story? How does the increasing aridity of the land, the devastation of the hillsides by fire, and the endless agonizing wait for rain influence your perception of the characters’ own sorrows and triumphs? Do you sense a spiritual dimension to the author’s description of the natural world?
6. In a typical West Indian society, the sense of community is of primary importance. A neighborhood lives like a family; each household looks out for the other, and children are seen as a collective responsibility. To what extent is this true of the small community portrayed in A Thirst For Rain, and what influences do you think have caused this lifestyle to deteriorate?
7. What led Odile, such a focused, successful student to turn to a boy for love? By the same token, what led her mother, Myra, to choose Slim as a mate?
8. Why didn’t these two smart women use contraception? Do you think that their pregnancies were less than accidental? What would they each have to gain by an ‘unwanted’ pregnancy?
9. In spite of the pain and hurt of the characters, the dire circumstances in which they live, and the earth-shattering violence that engulfs them, this is a love story. Do you think that Jacob and Myra deserve to be happy together?
10. Is your lasting impression A Thirst for Rain one of hope, or of despair? Will anything change?
Liked it? Try the sequel, Candy Don't Come in Gray
