Books > Bucking the Sun >

Reading Group Guide

Follow Simon & Schuster

1. While based on the actual building of the Fort Peck Dam, Bucking the Sun is a work of fiction. At what points does the novel depart from fact to imagination? What liberties does Doig take that an author of nonfiction could not? It has been said that fiction is the art of making things up to tell a greater truth; in what ways is this author trying to achieve that?

2. Describe the structure of Bucking the Sun. Discuss Doig's literary voice, as well as his use of flashback. What is the author's purpose in these italic "back stories"?

3. Doig has populated his novel equally with female and male characters -- Meg and Hugh, Bruce and Kate, Rosellen and Neil, Owen and Charlene, Proxy and Darius. How does Bucking the Sun illuminate the roles of women and men during the 1930s?

4. Reviewers of Doig's previous books have frequently commented that the women are strongly drawn personalities. Is this true of Bucking the Sun? Which woman do you consider the strongest?

5. Although the major characters are related, Doig takes care to make each a distinct personality. Consider examples of one way he does this: by giving each one unique turns of phrase.

6. Darius and Owen argue often about Darius's politics. How are their separate ideologies embodied in their actions? How do Darius's convictions ultimately affect the outcome of the story? How do Owen's? Discuss the significance of political beliefs and tactics in Bucking the Sun.

7. How is Carl Kinnick important to the novel? As a character? As a voice? As a plot device?

8. Doig writes of Kinnick: "He hated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for this project and its swarm of construction towns, if that's what you wanted to call such collections of shacks, and the whole shovelhead bunch down here who had to cut loose like rangutangs every Saturday night. Damn this New Deal crap. Wasn't there any better way to run a country than to make jobs out of thin air, handing out wage money like it was cigarette papers?" How does this political climate compare with the current debate in this country over the role of government?

9. Throughout the story, the characters are thrown into conflict with powerful natural forces. Doig twice describes Bruce as "buck(ing) the sun" when he drives his truck. What is the meaning of this phrase? What significance does it gather over the course of the novel?

"Going to Fort Peck" chapter in All But the Waltz, Mary Clearman Blew
Penguin, 1992

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Penguin, 1976

Earthlight, Wordfire: The Work of Ivan Doig, Elizabeth Simpson
University of Idaho Press, 1992

East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Penguin, 1992

The Exemplary Presidency, Philip Abbott
University of Massachusetts Press, 1990

The Job: The American Novel, Sinclair Lewis
University of Nebraska Press, 1994

No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin
Touchstone, 1994

Talking Up a Storm: Voices of the New West, Gregory L. Morris
University of Nebraska Press, 1994