1. Do some research on Anatole Broyard.

Compare his personality traits with one of the fathers from this collection.

2. Do research on families without the father present and compare the girls growing up in these families with those who grow up in families with the father present. What are some of the differences you discover? Similarities?

3. The author seems to focus on uppermiddle class families. Compare families in this class with those in the lowerclass. How different, or similar, are the father-daughter relationships?

4. Discuss the contrasting personality traits of the fathers in the collection. All these men are both charming and vain, charismatic and weak. Expand on these contrasts.

5. Discuss Broyard's view of women, based on her characterizations of the daughters and mothers in her stories. Research families without mothers present and compare them to families with mothers. What differences and...