Reading Circle

Discussion questions:

Over the period in which Crane knew Kitten intimately and when he went looking for her after the horrors in Toungoo, she seems to have many different personas. What do you think these are and why does she feel the need to be different things to different people?
What do you make of the character of Elsa and her contradictions – helping Laura to settle in and find her feet, tending to Crane’s injuries after his attack versus her later callousness towards Crane and Nelson. What are her motivations? Do you think she is just out for herself?
In the chaos that is Indo-China and Burma, everyone seems to be double-crossing everybody else. Why do you think there is such lawlessness and abandonment of former loyalties and friendships, even to the extent of actions that could lead to the death?
How naïve do you think Laura McGill is? Do you think she would have known what Walter was really up to? Do you think Diana knew? And do you think that she would have had any kind of relationship with Lee Crane if they had met under other circumstances?
Robert Ryan gives very vivid descriptions of the locations within the novel – yet the characters in the book do not seem to react to them in the same way as the reader. Have the horrors of war really become that normal to the characters? Why are they so desensitised do you think? And what makes these descriptions so powerful?
The Myra Belle – what do you think about the personality of the plane within the book? How do you think the novel would have worked if she wasn’t as big a factor? What do you think about Crane’s emotions for something that is a machine?