No Star is Lost cover

No Star is Lost

by James T. Farrell

No Star Is Lost begins in 1914, when the O'Neills are penniless again, when the family has grown to include two daughters and five sons, and when young Danny O'Neill is living with the grandmother in the comparative luxury of an apartment. The new light it throws on the environment is in its picture of the poverty of the O'Neills, with their excitement on payday, when they know they will get meat for supper, and their painful struggle to keep up some outward respectability in a world where they cannot pay their bills or get credit. And although the characters fight, insult each other, get drunk, beat the children, curse the Jews and the neighbors, they also make desperate efforts to get along better, to be patient and keep sober, so that their explosions seem pathetic rather than vicious. -- Time Magazine.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?