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The Power of the Dog book club questions
Here are 13 book club questions for The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
The Power of the Dog is Don Winslow's epic of the American drug war, covering roughly three decades from the 1970s to the early 2000s and tracing the rise of the Sinaloa cartel through the lives of a DEA agent, a priest, a hitman, a cartel boss, and several other figures whose fates are bound together by money, faith, violence, and the specific kind of corruption that a war without exit produces.
Don Winslow · 2005 · 15h 0m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 13 questions
- 1.
Art Keller dedicates his life to stopping Adán Barrera. By the end of the novel, what has that dedication cost him, and does the book think the cost was worth it?
- 2.
The CIA's complicity with drug trafficking organizations is a documented historical fact as well as a central plot element here. How does fictionalizing real corruption change your relationship to it?
- 3.
The book covers roughly thirty years. Which decade did you find most narratively and morally coherent? Which felt most chaotic?
- 4.
Nora Hayden is one of the novel's most morally complex figures — simultaneously victim, agent, and instrument. How does Winslow frame her choices?
- 5.
Winslow presents the drug war as an institution that reproduces itself. What would it mean to actually end it, and does the novel suggest it is possible?
- 6.
The priest's moral deterioration is gradual and comprehensible at each step. At what point did you feel he had crossed a line he couldn't come back from?
- 7.
Adán Barrera is not a monster — he is a strategist operating in an environment with very specific rules. How does that framing affect your moral response to him?
- 8.
Compared to Blood Meridian — another American novel that uses violence as a way of reading the country's soul — how does The Power of the Dog's approach differ?
- 9.
Winslow refuses a cathartic ending. Is that the honest choice given the subject matter, or does it withhold something readers are owed?
- 10.
The book is long. Were there sections that felt like they cost narrative momentum, or did every strand justify its space?
- 11.
The drug war depicted here is primarily a story about institutional failure. Who in the book is not, in some way, an agent of that failure?
- 12.
Winslow continued the story in The Cartel and The Border. After finishing The Power of the Dog, do you want to continue, or does this book feel complete?
- 13.
The title comes from Psalm 22. Having read the book, what do you think Winslow means by it?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for The Power of the Dog?
Here are 13 book club questions for The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on the drug war, institutional corruption, moral compromise.
How long should a book club discussion of The Power of the Dog last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in The Power of the Dog?
The drug war, Institutional corruption, Moral compromise, Violence and complicity, American imperialism. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like The Power of the Dog or questions for other book club picks.
