Like Moon Tiger, City of the Mind invites fruitful, controversial discussion, with some readers appreciating the book's tricky narrative shifts and others exasperated and confused by them. Thus, debate over whether the subnarratives are essential to the novel's artistic and thematic coherence will probably be central to any discussion of City of the Mind. But leaving aside the narrative technique and the ontological issues it raises, the book can be discussed for the social and moral concerns presented in the main narrative: the problematic nature of marriage, the emotional havoc wrought by divorce, the ethical problems created by urban development, and so on.

1. Why do you think Lively includes the four intermittent subnarratives? Do they contribute thematically to the novel (and if so, how?)? Or do they detract from the artistic and thematic coherence of the novel?

2. Although the shifts between main narrative and subnarratives may...