Study Questions and Biography

“The Vulgar Soul” and “I Am Not a Jew” By John Biguenet

First-Year Common Reading Program

We have selected as the 2011 Common Reading two short stories from the acclaimed collection, The Torturer’s Apprentice, written by Loyola author and distinguished professor John Biguenet. These provocative stories raise questions that lie at the heart of a Jesuit education, inviting you to think about your responsibilities to others, to the community in which you live, and to the human community as a whole. Grounded as they are in explorations of spirituality, these stories encourage you to reflect on your own spiritual beliefs and the ways that those beliefs are applicable to the world today.

You will have the chance to discuss your responses to the stories at an event with the author and your fellow students in September. In addition, the stories will be discussed in a number of first-year courses. This packet includes a set of questions to guide your reading and help you prepare for these discussions.

About the Author

John Biguenet, Robert Hunter Distinguished Professor of English, has published six books, including Oyster, a novel, and The Torturer's Apprentice: Stories, released in the U.S. by Ecco/HarperCollins and widely translated. His work has received an O. Henry Award for short fiction and a Harper's Magazine Writing Award among other distinctions, and his poems, stories and essays have been reprinted or cited in The Best American Mystery Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, The Best American Short Stories, Best Music Writing, and various other anthologies. His work has appeared in such magazines as Granta, Esquire, North American Review, Oxford American, Story, and Zoetrope.

Professor Biguenet has dramatized the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in a trilogy of plays, Rising Water (2006), Shotgun (2009), and Mold (forthcoming). Both Rising Water and Shotgun have won numerous awards and been produced widely.

Reading Questions

“The Vulgar Soul”

  1. What does the story tell you about the conflicts between faith and science? How does religion fit into that conflict?
  2. Look up “vulgar” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Using the origins of the word, think about how the title of the story traces the journey of Tom Hogue through his experiences as a stigmata.
  3. The psychiatrist Dr. Burke admits to dishonesty, but then she says, “ we all deceive ourselves about absolutely everything.” How does that statement apply to all the characters and incidents in the story?
  4. What is the story saying about all religions?
  5. Where do you think the story really should end? There are several points at which it could successfully be closed, but the author chooses to expand on the ending. Why?

“I Am Not a Jew”

  1. What does the story say about prejudice and persecution of minority groups?
  2. Why does Peter Anderson blame the Jews for what happened to them over thousands of years?
  3. Why does Peter tell Mr. Ziegler what happened to him in the Jewish cemetery but not his wife immediately after the incident?
  4. Are the boys in the cemetery simply hooligans as Mr. Ziegler says, or is there a darker and more dangerous definition for them?
  5. Is Peter’s wife right when she tells her husband that he lied when he said he was not a Jew?
  6. How does this story apply today to other racial or religious groups that are hated?