The Bastard, The Rebels, and The Seekers offer ample opportunity for gener ating discussions and group projects.

The greatest difficulty may be finding a focus for discussions, because the historical events covered are diverse and scattered across a long period. If group members are primarily interested in the family drama of the novels, a successful focus could be one that emphasizes the interaction of characters and Jakes's notions of what constitutes a "family," or another successful focus could be on the challenging topic of how historical events shape the lives of individual people. Are they swept along by history or do they have some individual effect on events? Can they alter events?

Project possibilities abound. One possibility is to research the significant historical events and compare what historians say to how Jakes depicts the events. This would work particularly well for a group interested primarily in...