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Summer Reading Selection 2006
The Summer Reading Selection for 2006 is The Palace Thief by Ethan Canin.
About
the Book
The Palace Thief is the story of a dedicated and inspiring classics professor at an elite prep school where an encounter with a student, the son of a powerful senator, inexorably alters his life. Forty-one years later at a reunion of his students, he is faced with the fear that he may have failed the most important challenge of his life—to have been a great teacher.
This text was selected not only for its appropriateness as a summer reading, but also for its potential connection to "Does Integrity Matter? ," the theme for CCIC sponsored programs in 2006-07.
About
the Author
Ethan Canin has written For Kings and Planets, The Palace Thief, Blue River, Emperor of Air and most recently Carry Me Across the Water. His fiction has been published in The Atlantic, Esquire, Ploughshares and The New Yorker. He grew up in California and attended Stanford University, where he received a BA in Engineering. He went on to the University Of Iowa's Writer's Workshop, after which, despairing of becoming a writer, he attended Harvard Medical School. Canin practiced medicine until the publication of his fourth book and is now on the faculty at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. He lives with his wife and two young daughters in California and Iowa City, Iowa.
Essay Assignment
The Palace Thief
by Ethan Canin
This academic year the College is sponsoring a series of programs based on the theme: “Does Integrity Matter?” The theme will be inaugurated at Community Learning Day on Wednesday, October 4, 2006 featuring Ethan Canin as the keynote speaker.
Keep the theme in mind and consider the following questions as you read the text. Be prepared to share your responses with fellow students and your faculty/staff facilitator in your Summer Reading discussion group.
You are expected to read all four stories and write a thoughtful essay in response to two of the discussion questions provided below. You must respond to question #1 and any one of the remaining questions. Your written essay should be no longer than two pages. Your essay will be collected by your Summer Reading discussion facilitator on August 28, 2006.
Essay and Discussion Questions:
I. “The Palace Thief”
What ethical choices does Hundert face in the first "Mr. Julius Caesar" competition? Does he face different choices in the second competition? Also, have you known anyone who cheated in a small way to gain advantage? Did they gain by cheating, or did they suffer? To what extent are we surrounded by a culture of small ethical lapses? What difference does it make?
II. "The Accountant"
Roth says he stole the “legging "without thinking" (49-50). Do you believe him? Why do you think he did it? Why do you think Naomi says, "I'm glad you did it"(55)? Is Roth glad he did it? Is the story bragging or confessing? Explain.
II. "Batorsag and Szerelem"
This story is about "the year everything changed" (59). Make two lists--one of the things that changed in the public world of politics and action (see 65-66, for instance); the other of the things that changed inside William's nuclear family (see 105). Are there any connections between the two lists? Do our personal lives and the life of our culture influence each other? Is it possible to separate one’s personal and public integrity? Why or why not?
IV. "City of Broken Hearts"
Make a list of all of the things that pull apart from each other in this story. What does Wilson learn about life? About love? About character and integrity? About himself?
