Introduction

On the morning of her release from prison, Sunny, who grew up in a snakehandling church in the Little Egypt region of Southern Illinois, rents a garage apartment from Jackson. She's been serving a five-year sentence for shooting, but not killing, her husband, the pastor of the Church of the Burning Bush with Signs Following, after he forced her at gunpoint to put her arm in a box of rattlesnakes.

Sunny and Jackson become lovers, but they're pulled in different directions. Sunny, drawn to science and eager to put her snake handling past behind her, enrolls at the university. Jackson, however, takes a professional interest in the religious ecstasy exhibited by the snakehandlers. Push comes to shove in a novel packed with wit, substance, and emotional depth. Snakewoman of Little Egypt delivers Robert Hellenga at the top of his form.

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Excerpt

CHAPTER I: RITE OF PASSAGE


On his fortieth birthday–August sixth, 1999–Jackson Carter Jones, associate professor of Anthropology at Thomas Ford University in west central Illinois, ate a poached egg for breakfast and then sat outside on the deck. It had rained recently–twice–and the stream, Johnson Creek, which sometimes dried up at the end of the summer, was full. When it was full, it emptied into the Lakota River, which emptied into the Mississippi. He was trying to decide his own fate, take it into his own hands. He took a coin out of his pocket. A quarter. One of the new ones, Pennsylvania, the American Eagle replaced by an allegorical female figure. He flipped it. It landed on the glass table top, bounced off onto the plank floor. The dog, a black lab with a little Rottweiler showing in her broad chest, jumped. The coin rolled in a big circle, then a smaller circle, and finally fell through a crack in the deck onto the sand and grit below, where a big groundhog had made his den. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

From the publisher:

1. Snakewoman of Little Egypt takes place in 1999 and 2000, a recent past that readers
should remember well. What period details from the turn of the millennium come to life
in the novel? Why do you think Robert Hellenga set his novel at this time instead of the
present day?
2. As soon as she steps out of prison, Sunny declares, “I used to be Willa Fern. Now I’m
Sunny.” (35) What does this new name mean to Sunny? How does her outlook on life
change in this moment?
3. Consider how Sunny and Jackson tell their own stories. How do the chapters in Sunny’s
voice differ from the chapters told from Jackson’s point of view?
4. Discuss what snakes mean to each character in the novel. Why do Earl, DX, and the
followers of their church handle snakes? Why are Cramer and Sunny studying them?
Why is Jackson drawn to DX’s two-headed snake? What personal, spiritual, and
professional possibilities do snakes hold for each of these characters?
5. As Sunny decides to live in Jackson’s home, she tells him, “I don’t need anyone to look
after me. But maybe you need someone to look after you.” (63) Throughout Sunny and
Jackson’s relationship, who seems to look after whom? When does the balance of power
shift between them and why?
6. How does Claire, Jackson’s ex-girlfriend and occasional lover, change over the course of
the novel? Does Claire seem like a trustworthy character when we first meet her? What
about at the end of the novel, during and after Sunny’s trial? How does she eventually
earn Sunny’s trust and sisterly love?
7. At the end of her first semester at Thomas Ford University, Sunny says, “I was suddenly
overwhelmed with a sense of well-being, a sense that the answers to life’s big questions
had fallen into my lap.” (188) What important answers does Sunny learn from each of her
classes—French 101, Great Books, English 207, and Biology 120? What big questions
still remain unanswered for Sunny?
8. Discuss Earl’s leadership as the pastor of the Church of the Burning Bush with Signs
Following. What are Earl’s values? What mistakes does he make when he is “backed up
on the Lord,” and how does he repent? Is he a villain in Snakewoman of Little Egypt?
Why or why not?
9. “For Jackson the Church of the Burning Bush with Signs Following provided a
professional opportunity too good to be passed up.” (140). Why is Jackson uniquely
qualified for this assignment of “salvage anthropology?” (123) What does Jackson seek
in Naqada, and what does he end up finding? Does his research take him closer to the
spirituality of the church or further away?
10. Twice Sunny stands trial for shooting Earl. How are the circumstances of each shooting
similar, and how are they different? At her second trial, Sunny realizes, “And the funny
thing was, I knew in my heart of hearts that in some ways the prosecutor was closer to the
truth than Stella, and he, the prosecutor, didn’t even know the half of it.” (322) What
version of Sunny does the prosecutor present to the jury? Why does the jury end up
siding with Sunny, even if the prosecutor is closer to the truth of her crimes?
11. During her trial, Sunny realizes, “And in fact in my own inner courtroom I was on trial
for going to Mexico with another man.” (314) Why does Sunny choose Mexico over
Paris? How does she atone for her decision?
12. Jackson often speaks of looking along a beam of light instead of looking at it. (168) What
vision does he seek when he looks along a beam of light? What are the rewards and
dangers of this point of view?
13. Warren, Sunny’s uncle, dies before the novel begins, but he has a strong effect on Sunny
and Jackson’s lives. What kind of man was Warren, according to Jackson and Sunny’s
memories of him? How does Warren manage to help his niece, even after his death?
14. In the end, why does Jackson return to Africa? Does it seem likely that he finds what he’s
looking for, even if Sunny never learns of his whereabouts? Why or why not?
15. Claire’s novel, Kiss of Death, ends with an engagement in France, while Snakewoman of
Little Egypt ends with a breakup and a fresh start. Which ending is more satisfying?
Which ending captures the “joie de vivre” that Sunny has been seeking since she left
prison? (340)
16. Robert Hellenga writes that the “two stories . . . are intertwined (like two snakes) in
Snakewoman of Little Egypt.” (341) How does the author weave the strands of the novel
together? What do the communities of Little Egypt and the Ituri Forest have in common,
and how are they different? How does Sunny and Jackson’s love story unite these two
worlds, and why does it ultimately drive them apart?

Weblinks

»	Publisher's Book Info
»	You Tube Video Introduction of the book by author Robert Hellenga

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