Reading Group Guide
These discussion questions are designed to enhance your group’s conversation about Flying
Shoes.
About the book
A fictionalized account of a heartbreaking true crime, Flying Shoes is the story of a family
working to put their greatest tragedy behind them, a growing justice system fighting to right past
negligence, and our slowly evolving attitudes toward some of the most terrible, scarring acts of
violence imaginable. But it’s also a portrait of a time and a place proudly removed from the rest
of the world—a town in the Deep South where outsiders stick out from a hundred yards away
and the codes of behavior run as thick as the small community’s ancestral bloodlines. Folks
know their neighbors almost as well as they know themselves—sometimes even better.
Eccentricities are met with a politely blind eye, but segregation and bigotry are ever present. And
as Mary Byrd and her family slowly leave their grief and anger behind and head into the future a
little bit lighter, so too does the town make its way into a new time, with the marks of change
etching their way into its facades.
For discussion
1) Flying Shoes showcases each of the different cultural microcosms living within its small
community. What cultures are represented in the novel? Where do you see them interact
with one another? Where do the boundaries between them seem impervious?
2) Flying Shoes takes place in a town closely modeled on Oxford, Mississippi, the same
town Faulkner wrote about several decades ago. How is the town portrayed by both
writers? How has it changed in seventy years?
3) Throughout the novel, we see tensions within the community and individuals caused by
race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Where do you see intolerance and bigotry on
an institutional level? Which characters seem to be victims of those injustices and how do
they respond to them? Which characters perpetuate stereotypes and/or intolerant attitudes
toward others? Do any of them surprise you? Where do you see tolerance and
understanding?
4) The idea of being an outsider within this small community is central to the novel. What
does it mean to belong to this community? Is it consistent for all the characters?
5) In many ways, Mary Byrd has had trouble moving on from her past. Where do you see
her arrested development? Do you think she has grown by the end of the novel? If so,
how?
6) There are different models of parenting on display in Flying Shoes. Where do you see the
parents’ strengths and weaknesses? Who are their parenting role models? How do the
parents’ pasts affect the lives of their children?
7) Where do we see intimacy between people in Flying Shoes? What are the different kinds
of closeness on display in the novel? Are there relationships that surprise you with their
intimacy? Or their lack thereof?
8) Edward Wiggsby is universally considered to be an abrasive man, but his behavior is
tolerated, even indulged, because of his art. Do artists have the right to bypass social
norms? If so, why?
9) Mary Byrd is fixated on the eighteenth-century figure William Byrd. What about his
story transfixes her? Does her connection seem appropriate? Where else do you see the
power of history in this novel?
10) When Foote and Mary Byrd drive to Virginia, they get in an argument about what it
means to be southern. Based on what you see in the novel, what do you think defines the
South?
11) Where do we see foreshadowing of Jack Ernest’s death? What does his character add to
the novel? Why is Mary Byrd so drawn to him? Why does she attend his funeral?
12) Throughout the novel, Mary Byrd struggles with the idea of putting Stevie’s death behind
her. Is it possible to put tragedy to rest? How has the grieving process changed through
time as we’ve become more capable of easily documenting our lives? Is it harder to let go
of the past now than it was one hundred years ago? Or even just thirty?
13) As she prepares to meet with Detective Stith, Mary Byrd wonders, “Why are so many
little cruelties built into us?” Do you agree with that sentiment? Why or why not? How is
that proven or disproven by the events of the novel?
14) Mary Byrd often responds to stress in ways that surprise people. Do her responses seem
inappropriate to you? Is it fair to judge the way other people handle anxiety?
15) What is the role of humor in Flying Shoes? How did it affect your experience reading a
novel with tragedy at its heart?
16) At the end of the novel, Mary Byrd seems to have reached a peace in the chaos of the
world. Do you agree with her or do you think there’s an order that she’s not seeing? Does
her new contentment seem like it will last?
Suggested reading
Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden; Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips; A Southern
Family by Gail Godwin; Shiloh and Other Stories by Bobbie Ann Mason; Joe by Larry Brown;
Taft by Ann Patchett; Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin; While I Was Gone by
Sue Miller; Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn; A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole;
Southern Cross the Dog by Bill Cheng; The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton
DiSclafani; Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje; Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.