Reading Group Questions for
Keep Your Mouth Shut
and Wear Beige
by Kathleen Gilles Seidel

1. Darcy Van Aiken narrates this novel. How does a first-person narrator color your impression of her husband, Mike? Of Rose? Of Claudia? Of Darcy herself? What would the novel have been like had Rose narrated it?
   
   
2. The novel explores, at some length, children's health.  How do Finney's physical and developmental issues affect those around him? Zack's? Annie's? 
    
3. Keep Your Mouth Shut and Wear Beige, like all comedies, begins with a society somehow in disarray.  What is out of place or out of balance at the book's beginning for the Van Aiken family? For the Zander-Browns? For Claudia? How do these issues resolve? Does the resolution seem realistic?
   
   
4. Darcy's considerable abilities and virtues are exhibited in this novel. But in the universe of this novel, even the least likable character has some good qualities. What virtues does Claudia exhibit?
   
   
5. At the heart of many comedies is a courtship between a man and a woman, ending in marriage. At the heart of this one, is a pair of women who bond as friends as they are in the process of becoming in-laws. What are the barriers they must surmount to become friends?
   
   
6. The book alludes to the story of Mary and Martha (p. 107). Of Rose and Darcy, which is which? Which is Claudia? Can this distinction be applied to the men in the book? 
   
   
7. Arrange the main characters by how much money they have. How does money, or its lack, drive them? The novel avoids easy categories—money, in this book, is not the root of all evil. How does having it help? How is having it a burden?
   
   
8. The book explores the idea of beauty as well. Think about Claudia and Annie. What effect does beauty— possessing it or pursuing it through creating it—have on their lives?
   
   
9. Family life is much in evidence—at one point the novel refers to "typical family chaos" (78). Is all family chaos created equal, or is every family chaotic in its own way?
   
   
10. Darcy Van Aiken admits that she needs to "face what I was going to do with the rest of my life" (262). To what extent do other characters create or recreate themselves in the course of the novel.