Dollface

by Renée Rosen

  10. Thirteen years after it was enacted, the Volstead Act was repealed and Prohibition was deemed a failure. In today’s society, can you identify any movements to ban certain items or behaviors that echo those of Prohibition? And if enforced, what do you think the outcome would be? What lessons did our nation learn from Prohibition, and are there any obvious mistakes that we as a society continue to make?

  11. When she was a young girl, Vera’s father was brutally murdered by the Black Hand Gang, a deadly extortionist group that gave way to the Mafia after it was disbanded in the early twentieth century. How did the murder of her father influence Vera’s life? Do you think his murder had anything to do with her choice of men and the path she ended up taking?

  12. Do you think Vera knew in the beginning of the novel that Shep and Tony were gangsters, or was she just naive? Once it was obvious that they were both gang members, how did she justify their actions to herself and others?

  13. Mother and daughter relationships factor strongly into this novel. Vera’s complicated relationship with her mother undergoes a major shift through the course of the story. What do you think accounts for this change? How is Vera’s relationship with her mother different from Vera’s relationship with Hannah?

  14. When Shep was incarcerated, Vera found herself in survival mode. Do you agree with the choices she made? Do you think she was courageous or reckless to enter into her own bootlegging operation?

  15. The women in Dollface represent flappers, gun molls, and mob wives. How do you think Vera, Evelyn, Dora, and Basha are similar? How are they different? Was there one character that you identified with more than the others?

  16. Vera suffers a great deal of pain and loss at the end of the novel. Did you feel sorry for her or did you think she got what she deserved?