Looking For Salvation at the Dairy Queen

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Discuss your overall impressions of Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen. Which aspects of Catherine Grace’s search for “salvation” were least or most believable, and why?

2. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is a work of Southern fiction. How did your experience reading Gilmore’s depiction of Southern culture compare and contrast to your experience reading other Southern literature? What narrative or atmospheric parallels do you notice between Gilmore’s narrative and titles like Fannie Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe or Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees? 

3. Compare and contrast your experience reading Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen to your experience reading Gilmore’s other novels. What thematic, narrative, or cultural parallels exist between this title and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove or The Funeral Dress?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Catherine Grace’s personal ambitions conflict with the expectations of her family and community. How does her struggle to distinguish herself from her legacy compare and contrast to your own self-discovery journey? Did you ever face differences between your desires and your family’s or community’s ideas for your future? How did you navigate these differences?

2. Gloria Jean Graves acts as Catherine Grace’s archetypal guide throughout the novel. Who have been the “Gloria Jeans” in your own life? How have your mentors given you the allowance to be different or to follow an unconventional path? What made their guidance so impactful?

3. Toward the end of the novel, Catherine Grace comes to believe that you can run from a town, but not from your home. What does “home” mean to you? Is it a physical place, a feeling, or the people you’re connected to? How does your sense of home compare and contrast to Catherine Grace’s?

4. Revelations about Catherine Grace’s parents’ pasts challenge her to forgive. Think about a time you were similarly forced to see someone you looked up to as a complex, flawed person. How did your shift in perspective change your relationship?

5. The Dairy Queen is Catherine Grace’s personal sanctuary throughout her coming of age. Have you ever had a similar refuge? How did this place offer you the safety to dream and plan for the future?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Explore how characters like Catherine Grace, Lena Mae, and Gloria Jean represent the clash between the domestic ideal and the desire for personal fulfillment in the 1970s South? How have these expectations for women evolved since the period in which the novel is set?

2. Cedar Grove Baptist Church is the undeniable social and moral epicenter of life in Ringgold. How does the novel portray the role of the church in shaping the town’s values and secrets? How does this depiction resonate with the role of powerful community institutions today?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Analyze the formal, narrative, and thematic resonance of Catherine Grace’s use of biblical language to describe her secular goals. How does her reliance on biblical allusion elevate her personal journey and redefine her sense of salvation?

2. How do the female characters who surround Catherine Grace contribute to Catherine Grace’s personal evolution? Consider how Gloria Jean, Miss Margaret Raines, and even Emma Sue Huckstep, represent different paths of womanhood. How do they help illuminate Catherine Grace’s own choices and development?

3. Identify three symbols not mentioned in the guide and explore their relevance to the novel’s themes. For instance, what do images like the photographs of Lena Mae, Nottely Lake, or the jewelry box signify, and how do they relate to the narrative’s explorations of legacy and salvation? 

4. Compare and contrast Catherine Grace’s and Martha Ann Cline’s characters. What is the significance of their differences and/or similarities? How would Catherine Grace’s coming-of-age narrative resonate differently if she didn’t have a sister?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Catherine Grace’s Preacher’s Strawberry Jam becomes a symbol of her new identity. What would the label for her jam jars look like? Describe the design elements you would include to capture the blend of her family’s heritage and her own modern, entrepreneurial spirit.

2. Put yourself in Hank Blankenship’s shoes on the day of Catherine Grace’s 18th birthday. What thoughts are running through your mind as you race to the bus station, only to see her bus pulling away? What do you think he was planning to say to her?

3. Design a small public memorial for Marshall Cline (Daddy) in the town of Ringgold. What form would it take, and what inscription would you write to acknowledge both his dedicated service to the community and his complex, flawed humanity?