About Smoke

Elizabeth Ruth’s much anticipated second novel, SMOKE, is a beautifully written novel that explores notions of beauty, identity, and the power of the imagination. At its heart, SMOKE asks two related questions: What happens when one of your own turns out to be a stranger, and what if that person happens to be you?

In the 1950s, in the Ontario tobacco-growing community of Smoke, a young boy on the verge of manhood is scarred forever. A night out with his buddies, too much booze and a lit cigarette, and Buster McFiddie's life will never be the same. Through the process of healing, one man's voice speaks to him, softly to ease his pain, spinning yarns of The Purple Gang, the notorious Detroit mob. It is the voice of John Gray, the town doctor, and soon it’s clear that telling these tales means as much to Doc as hearing them means to Buster.

In an era of conformity, a disfigured boy tries to move his life forward, and an old man grapples desperately with his past: the convergence of two lives on the cusp will change each of them, and the small-town world that binds them, in ways they could not have imagined.

Elizabeth Ruth's second novel is a tour de force: a potent, richly inventive story of identity and transformation, of reconciliation between the way you are seen, and the truth of who you really are.

Suggested questions for Book Club discussions

Talking Points for SMOKE by Elizabeth Ruth

1. SMOKE is a carefully structured novel that has been organized into four sections: Prime, Tie and Cure; Bills Come Due; Seed, Plant and Pray; and Maturation. Why do you think the author conceived of the novel in this way? How do the sections relate to the protagonist’s life and to the plot in general?

2. SMOKE chronicles a forgotten culture – that of tobacco growing pre-automation. Setting and sense of place are integral to the novel. How does the setting enhance the story?

3. What is the significance of the title of this book?

4. What function does the back-story about Prohibition and the Purple Gang serve in this novel? How does it enhance and develop Buster’s storyline? Doc John’s? Their friendship?

5. Despite its 1950s setting, SMOKE is a novel that strongly appeals to a contemporary reader. Why do you think that is? What do you think the author was trying to say to her readers about identity and self-determination?

6. Many of the secondary characters in SMOKE are outsiders in some way. For example, Jelly Bean, Isabel, Susan, Walter, Alice. Even Tom McFiddie. How so?

7. The scene in SMOKE where Doc John crosses the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, is a pivotal scene in many ways. What do you think the thematic significance of bridges, borders and boundaries is to this novel?

8. In SMOKE, imagination and storytelling are central means by which Doc John and Buster come to understand themselves and to communicate with the world around them. Why does Doc John tell stories? What impact do they have on Buster? Does their function change over the course of the novel for Doc John? For Buster?

9. At what point did the author reveal Doc John’s full identity? Were there clues before this moment? What were they? Why would the author decide not to show Doc John’s early life?

10. What purpose does the back-story of the local bandit serve in this novel? Why would the author end the novel with the scene that she does?

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Suggested questions for book club discussions

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Chosen! Smoke was selected as the 2007 One Book, One Community read. For details visit the One Book, One Community website or read the press release.

Toronto Star Crossword
Clue #1 Down: Elizabeth Ruth's 2005 novel
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Smoke was selected for the October 2005 book of the month for the Chatelaine.com book club.