Evening Book Club: Book Club
Contact Information
For more information regarding the Evening Book Club, please contact: Jaclyn Gomez at jgomez@rcls.org
Meeting Schedule
Next Meeting:
March 24, 2025 at 7:00pm
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
1. Irene and Dorothy have very different reasons for joining the Clubmobile Corps. What do you think each of them hopes to get by joining, and do they find what they're looking for?
2. The Rapid City's commandments are: "Roll on down the road. Nothing means a thing. Don't look back. Don't apologize. Don't concede. Don't let them see you cry. The Rapid City comes first. Never surrender.” How does each of these come across in the women's daily experiences? Does upholding the commandments change how they see their role in the war?
3. Dorothy comments that everyone loves Irene. Why does Irene cultivate this image of herself? How does it differ from Dorothy's own self-created image when speaking to the GIs? Do the versions of themselves they portray to the soldiers differ from who they are to each other?
4. Irene and Dorothy have a turning point in their experience of the war over one night in a small French town. How does the night change each of their views of the war, soldiers and officers?
5. How does going from the front lines to R&R in Cannes force the women to think about their time in the war so far? Would they have come to these realizations without the break? In what way does the break impact their return to the Rapid City and continued service?
6. Each meeting the women have with Zoot shows a different side of him, particularly in regard to how he views the deaths of combatants and non-combatants. What ways does he look at death, and how do his views shift throughout the war?
7. Irene, alone at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, begins to lose track of herself, time and reality without her truckmates. How do the truckmates anchor her? How has her identity become tied to the truck and her companions?
8. Throughout the book, the Rapid City receives letters from soldiers they've encountered. What is the purpose of those letters? How do they impact the women?
Source: https://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/good-night-irene/guide
Book Summary
Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military buses called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle.
After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a gallant American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact.
An interview with the author
An Interview with the Author
Book Reviews
Reviews of our current book.
Click on the links to read the full review!
- NPR...In Good Night, Irene, Urrea pays moving tribute to his mother and her Clubmobile comrades whose wartime service was largely forgotten because, even though they sometimes served under fire, they merely staffed what was called the "chow-and-charm circuit."
Urrea's main characters in this wartime buddy novel are two young women seeking escape and purpose: Irene Woodward, much like Urrea's own mother did, volunteers as a way out of a disastrous engagement back home in New York. Dorothy Dunford, a farmgirl from Indiana, has nothing left to lose: Her parents are dead and her brother was killed at Pearl Harbor. .. - Book Reporter...The list of novels covering World War II is extensive, but GOOD NIGHT, IRENE adds an element that is different from most of these works. Irene and Dorothy certainly experience the travails of combat, but they are not combatants in the true sense of the word. Their real service is something that we might find inappropriate these days. Their faces and voices, not to mention the comfort they provide, were considered important to the men fighting the war...
The Author's Website
The author's website.
- Luis Alberto UrreaFor information on the author: back ground information, awards, bibliography, etc.