Reading and Discussion Questions
Dana Spiotta, Eat the Document

1. This novel begins as its main character becomes a fugitive. What are her thoughts and feelings when she first goes underground?

2. This first thing we learn about teenage Jason is that he is obsessed with the Beach Boys. The second thing we learn is that he observes his mother carefully. Why do these facts matter?

3. What kind of place is Prairie Fire Bookstore? Its manager, Nash, is a middle-aged man who studies the “antiology” of the young people who use the store as a meeting place. What is “antiology”? Why do the young people call themselves “testers”? What are their “tests” about?

4. The story Spiotta tells moves deliberately back and forth between the 1960s and 1970s and the recent past. Why do you think she structured her novel this way?

5. Why is it important that Henry’s character displays many of the symptoms of PTSD in spite of the fact that he did not serve in Vietnam?

6. What sort of person is Miranda? Why does Spiotta describe the Black House as “pure post-suburban paradise for a girl like Miranda” (57)?

7. What happens when Jason discovers that his mother met Dennis Wilson, a member of the Beach Boys, in a California bar before he was born?

8. What do you think of Spiotta’s description of Eugene in the early 1970s?

9. Caroline’s response to feminist consciousness-raising groups and the sexual revolution is less than enthusiastic. “She focused on opposing the war—and what did women’s issues mean in the face of war” (100)? Why are these observations historically important?

10. The character of Josh moves from being a “hacktivist” opposed to Allegecom to working for that corporation. How does Spiotta use his character, especially in relation to Miranda and Nash, to suggest larger historical themes?

11. Caroline and Berry spend time in a rural women’s commune in upstate New York. How does Spiotta describe that experiment in living? What is the significance of the techno-yeses and the tech-nos? The work wheel?

12. When Caroline shares her secret with Berry, she explains herself this way. “I’d had enough of demonstrating against the war. We’d all had our fill of it—years of it. It changed nothing. I wanted to actively oppose. Not protest, some form of symbolic speech or gesture. We wanted tangible, unequivocal action. It was not necessarily the right tactic. I will say this, though, I was sure it was right at the time. I had to do something. I had to put myself at risk, personally. (188-189)” What do you make of this explanation?

13. What event sent Mary and Bobby underground? Why do you think that Spiotta waits until the end of the novel to describe it in detail?

14. After she leaves the New York commune, Caroline is raped while hitchhiking. How does this event fit into her story?

15. How does Jason alter Caroline’s life? Why does Spiotta call his birth Caroline’s “revolutionary act” (233)? Do you agree?

16. Eat the Document is a musical reference. To what?

17. Jason obtains three of Bobby Desoto’s underground films. What are they about? Why is this a turning point in the story?

18. One scene in this novel has Miranda and Josh shopping in a Seattle store called Suburban Guerilla. What do they see there? Why does it matter?

19. How do Jason and his mother feel when her secret is finally revealed?

20. What are the distinctive features of social activism during the 1960s and the 1990s, according to Spiotta?

21. What does this novel say about the 1960s? About secrets? About politics?

22. “You are moved to save the world, and then you are reduced to organizing everything just to save yourself” (102). Explain.