Raising fundamental questions about the nature of family ties and the often fragile dance between despair and joy, Blue Genes is ultimately a profound meditation on healing. The questions and discussion topics that follow are intended to enhance your reading of Christopher Lukas’s memoir.

1. What does Kit Lukas’s memoir demonstrate about the potential bonds between brothers? How does his relationship with Tony compare to the way you interact with your siblings?
2. What did those special childhood years with Elizabeth mean to both boys? What experiences were they able to savor because of their youth? What aspects of their life were made more painful because they were so young when she died?
3. Were you surprised to discover some of the treatments that were once administered to patients with Elizabeth’s condition? How did society’s response to conditions such as depression and bipolar disorder make the situation worse? Were there any benefits to these early-twentieth-century approaches?
4. What did Edwin teach his sons about becoming men, and about marriage?
5. What sense of family legacy did Missy provide to Kit and Tony? Who was the best source of maternal love for the boys after their mother’s death?
6. What was Aunt Judy’s role in the boys’ lives? How did they respond to her eccentricities and creativity, paired with her financial dependence on others? Who is the Aunt Judy in your family history?
7. As gifted writers, how did Kit and Tony view the world? What perceptive abilities and sensitivities did they possess as a result of their vocations? How might these recollections have unfolded if it had been written by Tony?
8. How has our understanding of children and parenting changed over the years? When you were growing up, were children permitted to grieve and participate in other realities of the adult world? Would Kit and Tony have led different lives if, as children, they had been able to speak honestly about the loss of their mother?
9. What accounts for the differences between Kit and Tony’s approaches to dating and marriage? To what degree were their personal lives shaped by nature versus nurture?
10. What was the role of psychoanalysis for Kit? What did he discover about himself and his family? What gave him the wisdom to seek help? What made him a good candidate for this type of therapy?
11. Slowly growing apart as they grew older, Kit and Tony faced competitiveness, misunderstandings, and frustration with each other. Did their shared history drive them apart, or was it the one constant that kept them together?
12. After his brother’s death, Kit contemplated many significant questions, captured in his book’s closing pages: How did he manage to survive while his brother did not? Was he his brother’s keeper? Discuss your reactions to these questions. Ultimately, how much control do we have over our destinies, and the destinies of those we love?
13. Did Kit Lukas’s recollections help you come to terms with tragedies in your own life? Are there unmentionable chapters in your family’s history? What would it take to discuss them openly, and to heal from the pain associated with those secrets?
14. What universal aspects of American culture and history are captured in this very personal true story? What makes Blue Genes unique compared to other memoirs of loss?