In the Meantime: A Reading Guide

1. What do you think of the way in which Lippincott tells the story-that is, the form of the novel, which is certainly unusual?

2. A related question: why does Lippincott begin the novel in the way that he does, with the earliest memories of each of the three main characters? Perhaps this question is answered in the novel-if so, how?

3. The author is unspecific about naming where Katherine, Luke and Starling live, in the beginning: why is this?

4. Why does Lippincott "interrupt" the narrative in the way that he does with the section set in Hiroshima on the day the atomic bomb was dropped? Is it successful?

5. Why did the author choose to make Starling's character bi-racial; couldn't he have just been white, like Katherine and Luke?

6. Discuss the role that patriotism, nationalism and xenophobia play in the novel, if they do.

7. Talk about the role that music, specifically jazz, plays in the novel.

8. The novel's three main characters-Kathryn, Luke and Starling-appear to be mirrored by Seichi, Myeko and Yukio in the Hiroshima section, and also by Peter, Renate and Hans in the story-within-the story that Peter tells Kathryn about his time in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Why?

9. Throughout the novel, as far as we know, Luke never has a sexual relationship-whether with a woman or a man. Do you find this credible, and if so, why do you think it is the case?

10. Starling simply disappears, somewhere in the late 1960s, and is never found. But in an earlier draft of the novel, he committed suicide: why do you think the author changed Starling's fate?

11. The last section of the book begins on September 7, 2001, over thirty-five years after the previous section: why is this, and also-why now, September 7, 2001? What is Lippincott's point here?

12. What is the overarching theme of the novel, if there is one-or perhaps there's more than one?

13. What is your opinion about Kathryn, in the end?

14. Why did Lippincott call his novel In the Meantime?

15. Are the three epigraphs helpful and if so, how?

16. The novel spans more than seventy-five years-why is it so short?