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About the The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down Discussion category
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1
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25
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September 17, 2026
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Overall, what did you think of The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down? (No spoilers in this thread, please!)
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30
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259
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September 17, 2026
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What did you think of the novel’s overall structure, with one character’s story flowing into the next?
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16
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103
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September 17, 2026
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Outsourcing factory work to China is a major theme. What’s your take on this trend? Do you think it can or should be reversed? Why or why not? Do companies have a choice, in your opinion?
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16
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105
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September 17, 2026
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Did you feel any of the main characters were evil, or did you mostly feel they were well-meaning?
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16
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104
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September 17, 2026
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Ernesto Hernandez allows Kit and her family to believe he’s a student and her parents help him until they find out the truth. Was their anger was justified? Would the outcome have been different if he’d been honest in the first place? Why or why not?
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13
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69
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September 17, 2026
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What were you doing during the time period depicted in the novel? Were you impacted by the economic downturn, and if so, in what ways?
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12
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81
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September 17, 2026
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In the Amazon, Ricardo tells Birgit and Karen that while ecology is important, there are also hungry people to feed. Later, he gets angry because foreigners want to tell the Brazilian government how to run their country. What’s your take on this issue?
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12
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63
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September 17, 2026
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What parallels do you see between the financial situation in the book and today’s global economy? What differences do you see between then and now?
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11
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56
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September 17, 2026
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Simon Blackwell, a banker in London, thinks to himself that trading is just dumb luck and equates it to betting at a roulette table (p. 89). What do you think of his attitude about the stock market? Do you share his opinion at all?
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11
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56
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September 17, 2026
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Nine main characters are each given a chapter in the book. Whose story did you find the most compelling?
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11
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92
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September 17, 2026
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Payne Tool & Die is told they’ll have to outsource to China, but the family patriarch wants to sell their personal property to keep the company afloat. He’s outvoted, but had his strategy prevailed, do you think he could have saved the company?
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10
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46
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September 17, 2026
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Have you read any books that have had a similar theme or style? If so, how did they compare to this one?
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10
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71
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September 17, 2026
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Tyler Wilson mourns the loss of his son. His friend Ray blames The New World Order and convinces him to join his quest for retribution in New York City. Why did Tyler went along with Ray’s scheme? Did you foresee the outcome?
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10
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75
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September 17, 2026
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Tomoko Watanabe attends a sales pitch for a book by a local celebrity hawking investment strategies. Have you ever attended something similar? What did you think of her adopting the woman’s advice? How did it change her?
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9
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50
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September 17, 2026
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To what do you think the title, The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down, refers to, now that you’ve read the book?
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9
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70
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September 17, 2026
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Trader Charlie Weeks is rescued from a snowstorm by Gunnar Johannessen. They become close, until Charlie finds out Gunnar advised the council against buying his bonds. What did you think of Charlie’s reaction? Why did they ignore Gunnar’s advice?
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8
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56
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September 17, 2026
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Ryan Forrester thinks that clean-air regulations were “most likely the death blow to the country’s ailing manufacturing industry.” Did the US went overboard, or not far enough when it instituted such regulations? What influences your opinion?
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8
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51
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September 17, 2026
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What role does money – the pursuit of it, the lack of it, the loss of it – play in each character’s life?
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6
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56
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September 17, 2026
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Russian Arkady Antonov finds the woman of his dreams in Cuba, but she changes once she discovers he's wealthy, leading to tragedy. Whom do you blame? Should Arkady have been honest with her from the start, and if so, what would have been different?
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6
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42
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September 17, 2026
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In Chapter 1, Liang Dacheng must convince his striking employees that working with the Americans is patriotic. Wang Min, the leader of the protest, disagrees. Who is correct, and why? Did your opinion of Liang Dacheng change over this section?
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5
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39
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September 17, 2026
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