Travis LaFrance
At Home in the Halls of Power

The Toro Reading Guide

This letter arrived:

Dear Travis: My friends and I have recently formed a book group. We are all women in our late twenties and thirties, liberated, educated and stylish—and committed to sucking the marrow from the literature we read. Well, next month I get to choose the book, and I've selected your masterpiece, Toro. I feel that we really need to probe this great work at a deep level. Does your publisher have a study guide that we could use for our book group? Devoutly, E.S.

A good question. I would not want you and your girlfriends to fritter away the 90 minutes, gazing slack-jawed at my jacket photo, and reading aloud the steamy scenes. (But then, now that I mention it, that might not be so bad.) As it happens, my publisher has just finished such a guide. It was completed with the cooperation of top scholars from top universities here and in Europe, and edited for final accuracy by yours truly. I hope it will be of service.

A Reading Group Guide to TORO by Travis LaFrance

1. LaFrance's work is often compared favorably to such master stylists as Ernest Hemingway and Knut Hamsun, whose muscular prose redefined the male writer as a robust visionary instead of an office-bound pencil-pusher. In what ways, and to what extent, does Toro represent a continuation of this legacy? Or conversely, can we consider LaFrance a pioneer—boldly carving a new niche in the American canon?

2. How many levels does Toro work on? Is it a tragedy? A meditation on human suffering and triumph? A metaphor for ambivalence regarding love and sportsmanship? What else?

3. Write down the names of ten close friends or relatives who are not present in your reading group. Beside each name, jot down two or three important lessons that person could gain from reading Toro. (e.g. Aunt Suzie: Loves tales of the exotic, could learn to love again; My husband: could practice being more robust like TLF; etc.) Now, after your book group is over, go to the bookstore or to Amazon.com and purchase copies for the people on your list. In a month, follow up with your readers, and see if your predictions were accurate.

4. Certain tenured, short-sighted critics have characterized Travis LaFrance as an "arrogant philanderer" and a "talentless pig," while more enlightened scholars have remarked that LaFrance's penchant for the fair sex is indeed a celebration of the female form and consciousness, and a bounteous gift to be shared and enjoyed by the entire sisterhood. Where do you stand? Discuss the ways in which the barbarous philistinism of the formerly-mentioned critics finds its way into the academic debate.

5. At the end of Chapter Two, as LaFrance sets out to Mexico with his burro, he writes: "The owl beckons us thither, southward. Ask not for whom the owl hoots, Travis. It hoots for thee." Do you think LaFrance is making a reference here to another major American author? Who? If so, what does this reference say about the aesthetic brotherhood between LaFrance and that author?

6. Upon meeting Travis, the Zapatista leader, Comandante Felipe says, "Amigo, we march as friends," to which LaFrance replies, "No, hermano, we march as brothers." Critics have often commented on how LaFrance's work breaks down cultural barriers. Why is this? Is this inspiring ability a result of LaFrance's revolutionary prose style that transcends a single language, or a result of his incomparable charm and magnetism? Or both?

7. As a rhetorical exercise, have your reading group write a letter to you local newspaper, admonishing the editor for neglecting to review Toro. Make the case that Toro is indeed the literary event of the decade, and that the paper's silence on the subject reflects poorly on the community. With respectful wording, compare Toro favorably to the hack-job they reviewed last Sunday. Then when your Book Group meeting ends, have everyone sign the letter, put it in an envelope and mail it to the editor.

Stay tuned: more to come. If you have any ideas for more study questions, please post them in the comments thread.