The Lions of Fifth Avenue

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. How did you respond to the interconnections between the 1913 and 1993 sequences of the novel? Discuss which elements of this temporal interconnection were most surprising or affecting for you, and why.

2. The novel explores feminist and patriarchal themes. How do Davis’s explorations relate to your own experiences or beliefs?

3. Did you relate more to Laura Lyons’s or Sadie Donovan’s storyline? Which elements of Laura’s or Sadie’s experiences were most similar to your own, and why?

4. Compare and contrast Laura’s and Sadie’s familial situations. How do their domestic and family lives resonate with your own?

5. If you were Laura and Jack told you your place was in the home, how would you respond? Would you make the same academic, vocational, and activist decisions Laura makes? What (if anything) would you do differently, and why?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Laura’s character is cast as a feminist icon. How does the novel use her experiences at Columbia University’s Journalism School and in the Heterodoxy Club to complicate and/or fuel her political work and agendas? How does her activism relate to contemporary gender politics and fifth-wave feminism?

2. The novel alternates between the years 1913 and 1993. Compare and contrast these eras and how they shape Laura’s and Sadie’s identities.

3. The novel is set in New York City. Discuss how this metropolitan backdrop influences the novel’s mood, conflicts, stakes, and themes. How would the novel differ if it were set in an alternate United States city?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. The Lions of Fifth Avenue is written from alternating points of view. Explore the narrative and thematic significance of this choice. How would the novel’s stakes and themes differ if written from another point of view?

2. The novel shifts back and forth between the past and present throughout. How does this temporal structure enact the novel’s ideas about history and legacy?

3. The novel explores the importance of historical artifacts. Discuss the literary devices Davis uses to facilitate these explorations. Consider setting, mood, tone, imagery, and symbolism. 

4. Recurring images of books pervade the novel. Explore the symbolic significance of this recurrent imagery. How do the characters’ relationships to books create conflict and influence how they see themselves and relate to others? 

5. The novel explores the struggles women face in a male-dominated society. In light of this theme, what role do you understand the male characters to play in Laura’s and Sadie’s lives? Consider the roles of characters like Lonnie, Jack Lyons, Nick Adriano, and Dr. Wakeman.