Book Club Discussion Guide for TRINITY by Zelda Lockhart

TRINITY, a novel by Zelda Lockhart

HarperCollins Amistad | July 4, 2023 | Hardcover | $27.99 | ISBN: 9780063160958 |

E: 9780063160972 | Audio: 9780063160989

Information to book Dr. Zelda Lockhart as a guest, speaking: Authors Unbound, Christie Hinrichs christie@authorsunbound.com 

Description:

Trinity tells a multigenerational story from the point of view of a girl spirit awakened by the long term tragedies sparked by colonization and the removal of African people to the Americas as slaves. We follow the Lee family through this epic tale from 1866, one year after the Emancipation Proclamation, to the early 2000s. Within the pages of Trinity the Lees seek their healing and freedom and make home in Mississippi, South Korea, Missouri, Vietnam, North Carolina and Ghana. The spirit who holds this story is with them until she is born into the story as Lottie Rebecca Lee, prepared to stitch love and land back into their lineage.

Questions & Topics for Discussion: 

1. What do you think is the meaning of the title,Trinity?
2. Which characters in the book do you identify with in some way? 
3. The novel explores several historical events and reveals a lot of social behaviors and policies that have abused the bodies and minds of Black men and women for centuries. This violence transmutes to the men and then to the women and children. How does this same type of generational violence from society to families impact people of different cultural backgrounds?
4. The brothers Bennie, James and Lenard try different strategies to survive the hound dogs of colonization that seem to always be bearing down on them. Discuss their strategies. How are they different or similar to strategies of social survival tried by you and your kin? 
5. The women in the novel Lottie, Ethergene, Sister Barbara, Rebecca, Sheila, Sara Lou, (the woman who owned the walk-up) and Lottie Rebecca Lee are resilient both physically and spiritually. How does this resilience show up differently for each woman as she cares for herself and others? 
6. Trinity reveals the economics and inhumanity of slavery and sharecropping. How do you think these compare to current institutions?
7. This story is set primarily in the American South, but travels wherever the Black men and women travel participating in war, in industrial migration, and in personal and family pilgrimages. What was your experience of reading about family members who end up traveling to different places in the world?
8. Ancestral spirits are as present in the story as people. What did you think about the presence of spirits in the story? Do you and/or your friends and family have experiences with ancestral spirits?
9. It seems each generation in the novel is a bit better off than the generation before. What do you think was responsible for this? 
10. Lottie Rebecca Lee is born with all of her spiritual memory intact. How do you think this caused struggles for her and how do you think it helped her achieve her goal in the story?
11. Discuss the poetic writing and the references to nature in the story. 
12. In the end of the story, there is emphasis on offering respectable burial to the dead, and on honoring the stories of those living and those gone who have passed away. Why do you think the author makes this so central to the outcome of the story?
13. There are several women’s stories woven into the telling of Trinity; what do you think is the significance of Rebecca’s story, and what might readers gain insight into by reading her journey?
14. There are also several men’s stories woven into the telling of Trinity. BJ is very central in the second half of the novel. What do you think is the significance of BJ’s story in the novel?
15. There is so much fishing and gardening outside of forced gardening in the story. What do you think is the significance of this?
16. Capitalism has separated this family from their mothers, from each other and from the land over and over. How do you feel the author portrays this loss and offers hope of recovery from these losses?
17. While Lottie Rebecca is still in spirit form, before she is born, she and the mother spirit are in conflict over what to do about Bennie and his attempts and failed attempts at healing from the violence beaten into him. Once Lottie Rebecca is born into the story, she and her mother Sheila are in conflict. Who do you think is right in these mother-daughter conflicts and why are they occurring? 
18. Bennie starts out as an innocent boy who turns into a violent man. The author never allows the readers to see him doing violence for violence sake, but always shows and offers the impetus for his outbursts. How do you relate to this innocent and evil portrayal of his character? Why do you think the author made these character development choices for Bennie? 
19. With the italic openings of most of the chapters, we see the forgiving mother spirit attempting to guide her lost child. In what ways does this reflect the sometimes-confusing-to-others force of mother love for sons who have done wrong? 
20. Lottie Rebecca is a Black girl defying her family in order to make change. In what way is she like her great grandmother Lottie? 
21. What do you think is Lottie Rebecca’s future beyond the pages of Trinity?

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©2024 Zelda Lockhart