In a number of ways God's Grace is an extraordinary, perhaps even a stunning, book. Breaking with all expectations, Malamud deliberately embarks on a narrative path which leads him away from what many readers would automatically associate with contemporary fiction. In your discussion of this experimental, allegorical, and profound novel, you may wish to consider the following questions.

1. Can you explain the significance of at least some of the symbolic roles played by Cohn in the novel?

2. What are the positive and/or negative personality traits of the four principal players in the novel: Cohn, God, Buz and George?

3. What were Cohn's errors in running the chimp community? Were they avoidable, or, given the primate nature and the ambitiousness of the experiment, destined to end in failure?

4. How would you handle the fact of being stranded on a desert island? The fact of being the last...