Reading Group Guide
(from the paperback version of Swallow the Ocean)
1. Swallow the Ocean begins with scenes from the author’s early childhood, when the family is still intact, before Sally’s illness took hold. Why do you think the author chose to begin her story then?
2. What do you think of the title, Swallow the Ocean? What role do images of water play in the narrative?
3. The narrative of Swallow the Ocean shifts in perspective between a child’s-eye view and that of an adult looking back on her past. How are these shifts achieved, and what effect do they have?
4. How does Laura’s relationship with her mother evolve through the course of the narrative?
5. Each of the three sisters has a different experience of, and reaction to, Sally’s illness. How would you characterize each girl’s unique experience, and what accounts for the differences between them?
6. What impact do you think the time and place in which the Flynn family lived had on the outcome of this story? Did it contribute to Sally’s illness? What about her husband’s understanding of that illness, and other people’s perceptions of it?
7. Flynn’s father faced an uphill battle in the courts of the 1970s as a father trying to gain custody of his children. Has this changed? Could this story be repeated today?
8. The medical term “paranoid schizophrenia” is used only a few times in the memoir. Do you think this is intentional?
9. Imagination plays a central role in this story. Sally’s retreat into her world is paralleled by her daughters’ retreat into their imaginative world. What do you think this says about the risks and the protection offered by looking inward?
10. Toward the end of the book, Flynn writes, “Some things we come with, some we are given.” What do you think she is referring to? What traits do you think the three girls came with? What were they given?
11. At the end of the memoir, Sally Flynn remains completely unmedicated, despite having been diagnosed with schizophrenia. What do you think about this? In weighing the need for treatment against the need to protect the rights of the mentally ill, where should the balance lie? Who should decide?
12. Has reading Swallow the Ocean changed your understanding of mental illness? If so, in what ways?