Overall

1. Zola Lawrence thought she was writing about the men in her life, but a friend said the book was about her.  Why was her perspective so far from reality?
2. One reader said the book is full of rejection, but Zola insists it’s full of love. Who is correct?
3. Of the six men, how are they similar? How are they different?
4. Who do you think Zola loved the most? Who loved Zola the most?
5. Draw a timeline to see how the relationships overlapped. How could Zola so passionately love one man while simultaneously love another?

 Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n Roll

1. How did the sexual revolution influence these relationships?
2. How did the Vietnam War influence these relationships?
3. List all the birth control methods Zola used. What were their advantages and disadvantages?
4. How does Zola’s drug usage (including alcohol) evolve over the course of the book?
5. What was Zola’s preferred kind of music?
6. List all the music mentioned in the book.

 Zola’s Virgin Lover & Her Virgin Lovers

Mick, the Welshman

1. Why was Mick able to seduce Zola unlike many other young men she had dated?
2. What similarities in their personalities attract them to each other?
3. How does unfaithfulness figure in this relationship?
   

Shawn, First Love

1. What do Shawn and Zola have in common?
2. How did the Vietnam War limit Shawn’s choices?
3. Zola thinks Shawn presented two personalities: the eclectic, wild and wonderful man who seduced her with his letters and the boring man she lived with in Spokane. Why was Shawn different in real life compared to his letters.
   

Dennis, College Love

1. Zola entitles this chapter, ‘College Love’.  What kind of students were they?
2. What was the basis for most of their conflicts?
3. Dennis tells Zola she has enriched his life. What did she give him that was missing?

 Richard, The Triangle

1. Why did Zola and Richard become lovers?
2. Why did they stop being lovers?
3. What was the core of their relationship?

 Keith, the Canadian Adventurer

1. Both Keith and Zola seem addicted to adventure: he to physically traveling and she to mentally/emotionally traveling. How do these two addictions attract and repel both of them over the years?
2. Compare Keith’s drug use over the years with Zola’s.
3. What do these two talk about?

Pierre, the Frenchman

1. Zola is 30 in Paris while Pierre is 25. Does the age difference impact on their relationship?
2. Why is there no strong bond between Zola and Pierre?
3. Zola says Pierre is the end of illusion. When illusion is she referring to?

Zola’s Personality

1. What relationship did Zola have with her family?
2. Some people say a person’s relationship with their parents shape their idea of God. What was her relationship with God?
3. In Chapter Four, she told a friend that ‘Art can save people.’ Is this true?

 Psychology

1. In her blog in April 2008, Zola argues that young people in their 20s don’t really have free choice because their lives are dictated by their genetics and family upbringing. How does her memoir support or refute this?
2. Zola was diagnosed as borderline personality and later as manic depressive. What behaviors might support or refute these diagnoses?
3. William Hunt, one of Zola’s Loyola University of Chicago’s colleagues and a friend, was honored by the American Psychology Association for his contribution to the field of psychology. He had established the US Navy’s psychiatric evaluation system during World War II, and worked with many psychotics. When he met Zola in 1978, he thought she might be a psychopath. Why might he have thought this?
4. Describe the times Zola commits adultery. Why does she do this?
5. Compare Zola’s LSD experience in Chapter Three with her description of a thought form in Chapter Four.
6. How do the deaths and near-death of her mother shape Zola’s life?
7. How do male virgins seem to differ from female virgins?
8. What scene gave you an AH-HA moment about your own life?
9. Zola Lawrence is a pen name.  Does Virgins! have anything in common with Emile Zola and D. H. Lawrence’s novels?
10. Two chapters were not included in this edition. One was about a man who remained Zola’s friend throughout their college years. He too was from a dysfunctional family and also interested in psychology and the occult. If Zola offered this chapter as a free download from her website, would you download it?
11. The other missing chapter is about the best friend of a man she dates in high school. When he and his best friend visit her in college, she falls for the best friend. Later, when she has temporarily left the guitar player, she visits him. Trying to overcome some of her faults, Zola tries to love this man in a healthier way, yet their relationship is doomed – not because of her neurosis, but his. If Zola offered this chapter and the other missing chapter in a short Virgins! A Memoir of the Sexual Revolution Sequel, would you buy it?
    12. In conclusion, Zola Lawrence thinks books have more than one main idea. What main ideas can be attributed to Virgins! A Memoir of the Sexual Revolution?