Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?
By John R. Powers

312 Pages • $12.95

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
AND REFLECTION

Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?
By John R. Powers (click here to learn more about this author)

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Use the following questions as guides to deeper individual understanding of the novel or for group discussion.

1. How would you describe the role that Catholic institutions and belief systems played in the world of Eddie Ryan? How does this compare to the world of your own adolescence?

2. This world Powers describes is often termed a “Catholic ghetto.” What do you think were the negative elements of such a world? What were the positive elements?

3. How does Eddie Ryan experience the church’s teaching on sexuality? What is missing in his understanding, as it’s expressed by this character?

4. Describe the social hierarchy of Bremmer High School. How does Eddie Ryan’s experience compare with your own?

5. What was Eddie Ryan’s experience of religious education in his Catholic high school? What parts of this description of his religion classes and retreats surprised you?

6. During Eddie Ryan’s senior retreat, Father Rinsbury’s account of Jesus’ arrest and trial before Pilate evokes a strong reaction from one student (p. 222). Why does the priest describe this response as “an act of faith?”

7. The memories in this novel—of first loves, first cars, and even the “valleys and peaks” of ordinary life (pp. 167–68)—are tinged with bittersweetness. What are the roots of this mood? What are your feelings as you recall your own youth?

8. What truths does the conversation between Una and Eddie in the hospital room reveal (pp. 277–86)?

9. What do you think being Catholic means to Eddie Ryan? What do you think being Catholic means to young people today? What hasn’t changed? What has? Why?

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