READERS GUIDE

Oh God, The Sun Goes Reading Group Guide


1. In the novel, the narrator does not only go on a journey through Arizona, he also goes through a journey of his own mind. This parallel extends to the  jobs at which he and M are employed:  while M. is a pilot, traversing physical space as a profession, the narrator works for a company that pays him to sleep, which can be seen, in itself, as a trip across  mental space. How is Oh God, the Sun Goes a reflection on the similarities between physical and mental space?

2. How does Dr. Higley function as a double of the narrator throughout the text? Is the doubling perfect, or are there crucial differences between him and the narrator?

3. What is the role of desire as a driving force through the novel? By the end of the novel, is desire seen as productive or merely restrictive?

4. Settings such as the train, the Mind, and Sun City occupy an absurd, in-between space; they represent a place that is neither here nor there. How do these liminal spaces show up in the novel, and what is their function?

5. Many of the secondary characters the narrator meets throughout his journey display an almost robotic superficiality. At the same time, the author frequently engages in the personification of inanimate objects: “If the car could speak, it would say get in” (pg. 8). How does Connor subvert traditional understandings of the human and the artificial, and to what end?

6. In Chapter XI, the librarian describes to the narrator “‘a language that could only communicate through form’” (pg. 107). How does this idea relate to the text as a whole, and how would you characterize the relationship between language and form Connor explores throughout his novel?

7. In Chapter XIV, Del Webb describes the seeming coincidence that the sun disappeared as soon as he and Dr. Higley began construction on their Sun City. How does Connor weave the theme of man trying to conquer nature throughout the novel? How might religion play into this theme?

8. At the end of the book, why does the sun return when M disappears? What is the relationship between M and the sun, and does it change throughout the novel?

9. What is the purpose of the appendix-like glossary of neurological terms at the end? What does it say or imply about the rest of the book?