How do the colonel’s wartime experiences influence his understanding of duty and loss? Does the novel endorse the same understanding?

Analyze the narrative structure of Across the River and into the Trees. Discuss how memory, reflection, and present action are interwoven throughout the novel, and to what effect.

Examine the portrayal of postwar Europe in the novel. How does Venice reflect the broader cultural atmosphere of recovery and disillusionment after World War II? How does this portrayal intersect with Venice’s frequent association with decline in Western literature?

Consider how repeated actions such as eating, drinking, and walking contribute to the novel’s emotional environment. How does this repetition structure the narrative, and why is that significant?

The novel contains allusions to other works of literature (such as “The Waste Land”), as well as to historical events that have taken on the quality of legend (such as Stonewall Jackson’s death). How does this intertextuality develop the novel’s themes?

Examine the relationship between individual memory and collective history in the novel. In particular, how do the colonel’s personal recollections intersect with the larger history of 20th-century warfare, and what do the divergences suggest?

Discuss the novel’s dual representations of death—in combat versus from illness. How do these different kinds of death combine to develop the text’s ideas about mortality?

How is femininity depicted in Across the River and into the Trees? How does this complement or complicate the novel’s portrayal of masculinity?