Discussion Questions for Acsension

Because I had trouble finding some discussion questions online and had to make some up, I figured I'd post them on here for anyone else looking! These were prompted from a couple reviews I read about the book. Here goes...

1. The strength of this novel is the author's ability to sustain tension. In a number of scenes on the high wire, the author has a remarkable ability to involve the reader in the action, although some of the descriptions of circus tricks are difficult to picture. Do you agree?

2. Galloway offers an excellent description of the horrendous 1945 big-top fire in Boise, Idaho, in which 112 people died, bringing the age of large tent circuses to an end. Did the facts seem to over shadow the story? Did the insertion of this factual event seem natural to the story?

3. The book is also riddled with gypsy tales that have the feel of genuine folk stories straight from the forests of Eastern Europe. Even though we meet the many people who have inhabited Salvo's world, including the extended Fisher-Fielding family, which is in constant struggle over control of the circus, it is his loneliness on the high wire that we feel most keenly. Do you agree? Do you feel the Rom tales help or hinder the flow of the story?

4. How their story is told is more notable than the story itself… do you agree? There should be some dramatic tension, but this is denied. Was this on purpose? It might be argued that by using familiar expressions and simple sentences Galloway is placing Ascension on the level of folklore, fitting his literary effort in with the novel's interspersed Romany tales. I wonder if Galloway’s other novels are similarly drab?

5. Many promising symbols and thematic threads—bears, fire, adoption and belonging—are introduced then left unexplored. Some make sense if you puzzle them out, but are emotionally unsatisfying. What do these symbols mean? When his characters die, we don't grieve. When they mourn, we don't mourn with them. What do you think Galloway could’ve done differently, to portray his character's emotions more engagingly?

And here's a link to a great interview I found with Galloway, from 2004:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/bwriting/stories/s1182874.htm
(you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the Galloway part)