1. "That's probably the thing I'm best at in my life, tying
knots," Phil says. Is it a fair description of his life and the
book we''re reading? How?
2. How does TV influence Phil's life and The
Ravine as a whole?
3. Several times Phil corrects himself, and doubts his memories
of events he's told us about or has these accounts refuted by other
characters (whose words he transcribes). Is Phil a reliable
narrator? What effect does his reliability as a narrator have on
your sense of him and his life?
4. What do you regard as the funniest moment in this otherwise
dark book?
5. Why does Phil have an affair with Bellamy?
6. Phil's daughters are named Ellis and Currer; the man who
directs his first play is called George Gordon; he is friends with
a (William) Beckett. What's the significance of names in
The Ravine?
7. What does The Ravine tell us about
"high" v. "popular" culture? (Among other things, you might
consider the arguments Jay and Phil have about their careers, the
importance of The Twilight Zone and Barchester
Towers to the plot of The Ravine, and the
role played by John Hooper.)
8. "I should let you know, John - and this might affect your
next book - there is a reclamation project in the works." In what
ways is The Ravine a reclamation
project?
9. In what ways does The Ravine define
personal and/or professional success?
10. What different responses to evil does The
Ravine explore?
11. The Ravine features a large cast
of major characters - Phil, Jay - and more minor characters,
including Phil's rival, the novelist John Hooper; barmaid and
doctoral student Amy; Phil's sometime-girlfriend, Bellamy;
Veronica's new boyfriend, Kerwen. . . . Who is your favourite minor
character in the book, and why?
12. "Just because we're brothers doesn't mean we're the same or
even similar." Describe the relationship between Phil and Jay
McQuigge. Why does Jay help Phil the way he does?
13. Phil writes about what he's writing as he's writing it.
Starting out he tells us his strengths and weaknesses as a
novelist; when he writes a scene in screenplay form, he says that
it's because "it affords distance." Later on, a character in
Hooper's novel Baxter turns out to be based on Phil (and
to further confuse things, his name is Paul). What do you make of
the uses of metafiction - the ways The Ravine
is aware of itself and about itself - in this novel?
14. How is The Ravine similar to and
different from Paul Quarrington's other books?
15. What is the "eleventh commandment" in The
Ravine, and why does it matter?
16. Do you like Phil McQuigge? Or, are you at least willing to
see what he makes of himself? How does Paul Quarrington keep alive
the reader's sympathy for his drunk, self-obsessed,
self-destructive narrator?
17. Which Twilight Zone episode best describes Phil's
life?
18. Paul Quarrington described The Ravine as
what would happen if he wrote Mystic River, the
Dennis Lehane novel that was made into a film by Clint Eastwood.
What does he mean?
19. Will you recommend The Ravine to
your friends? Why, or why not?
20. "Well, can't you just make something up?" How do you feel
about the ending of The Ravine?