Fall on your Knees

James Piper is arguably an irredeemable monster, whose pedophilia is only one of many transgressions. How and why do other characters enable or deter his predations?

Why does Frances want to have a baby with Ginger? Why does she believe she must punish him for what she thinks he did to Kathleen in this way? Is her sexual development tied to her molestation at the hands of her father?

Compare the novel’s two settings: Cape Breton Island and Manhattan Island. What does each symbolize? How are they similar? What effects do they have on their residents?

Research the traditional interpretation of the sacrament of baptism, and then compare this interpretation with the novel’s many baptismal scenes. In this light, are Frances’s actions at the creek heroic or heretical?

Why does the novel portray flaws even in the seemingly idealized relationship between Kathleen and Rose? Why does Rose write to James?

Music is critical in the novel. Research the music that Kathleen studies and the music that Rose plays in the Harlem speakeasies. What does each style of music—classical and ragtime—say about each of the characters?

“The facts of the situation don’t necessarily indicate anything about the truth of the situation. In this moment, fact and truth become separated and commence to wander like twins in a fairy tale, waiting to be united by that special someone who possesses the secret of telling them apart” (137). How does the novel differentiate between facts and truth? What moral, ethical, and other valences do these concepts have in this book?

Why does MacDonald reveal the truth about Kathleen’s pregnancy and her love affair with Rose only at the end of the novel? How would knowing what happened change a second reading of the novel?