READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

INTRODUCTION

Heavenly peace? No, thank you. Dorothy Parker would rather wander the famous halls of the Algonquin Hotel, drink in hand, searching for someone, anyone, who will keep her company on this side of eternity.

After forty years she thinks she’s found the perfect candidate in Ted Shriver, a brilliant literary voice of the 1970s, silenced early in a promising career by a devastating plagiarism scandal. Now a prickly recluse, he hides away in the old hotel slowly dying of cancer, which he refuses to treat. If she can just convince him to sign the infamous guestbook of Percy Coates, Dorothy Parker might be able to persuade the jaded writer to spurn the white light with her. Ted, however, might be the only person living or dead who’s more stubborn than Parker, and he rejects her proposal outright.  

When a young, ambitious TV producer, Norah Wolfe, enters the hotel in search of Ted Shriver, Parker sees another opportunity to get what she wants. Instead, she and Norah manage to uncover such startling secrets about Ted’s past that the future changes for all of them.

Ellen Meister has written five novels—including Farewell, Dorothy Parker and The Other Life—as well as numerous short stories and essays. She teaches creative writing at Hofstra University Continuing Education, and does public speaking about her books and other writing-related issues. Ellen lives on Long Island with her husband and three children.

1. In the first chapters of Dorothy Parker Drank Here, how did you feel about Ted Shriver’s decision to spend his last days alone at the Algonquin Hotel? How did your feelings change by the end of the novel? Do you think anyone else, such as Peter Salzberg or Parker, had a responsibility to try to change his mind?


2. Why do you think Ellen Meister chose to include flashbacks in which notables pass through on their way to the afterlife? What did these scenes reveal about Dorothy Parker?


3. Both Ted Shriver and his ex-wife, Audrey, did things they later regretted. Do you think that one of them should be blamed more than the other? Did you, as a reader, forgive them by the end of the novel?


4. What do you think was Dorothy Parker’s real reason for getting herself so deeply involved in Norah Wolfe’s desperate search for Ted Shriver? Does she harbor altruistic intentions?


5. Norah Wolfe’s mother plays an important role in the book even though she’s never actually present in the action of the plot. How is she a different kind of ghost than Dorothy Parker? How are they similar?


6. What role does white light play in Dorothy Parker Drank Here and how does it affect the decisions of everyone at the Algonquin Hotel? Do you think it means different things to Dorothy Parker, Ted Shriver, and Norah Wolfe, for example?


7. Ted Shriver kept Audrey’s shameful secret for decades despite the devastating consequences to his career. Why do you think he was so willing to be branded a plagiarist? Why didn’t he see his sacrifice as noble?


8. The theme of family—both real and symbolic—resonates throughout Dorothy Parker Drank Here. How does this play out between Norah Wolfe and Dorothy Parker? Between Wolfe and her coworkers? What other family issues are explored?


9. There’s a great deal of implied history in the friendship between Ted Shriver and Peter Salzberg. What does their history tell you about Ted that isn’t revealed otherwise?


10. The end of the novel, including Ted Shriver’s death, is extremely emotional. Did you feel like the book had a happy ending or was it something else? And if something else, what would you call it?