Hunger book club questions

The reading plan

Meeting 1: Part 1

1. When someone is penniless, how much room is there for pride?
2. Does pawning his waistcoat seem like surrender or a way to keep going?
3. How might hunger change what beginning an article demands of the writer?
4. How much should the writer's hardship affect how we judge his troubling two women?
5. What might a borrowed name offer someone who has little money?

Meeting 2: Parts 2 to 3

6. Is protecting an image of respectability worth going without food?
7. Why might asking for shelter feel possible when asking for food does not?
8. Does the writer's false identity seem more like protection or a trap?
9. How should hunger affect our judgment of the writer accepting mistaken change?
10. Where would you draw the line between protecting dignity and deceiving others in the writer's choices?

Meeting 3: Part 4

11. How much control over his writing can we fairly expect from someone facing debt and humiliation?
12. How might household mockery change the meaning of pride for the writer?
13. What different pressures might jealousy and debt place on the writer's ability to work?
14. What difference do you see between struggling to begin an article and starting a drama amid humiliation?
15. What would count as success for the writer when debt, lost shelter, and mockery disrupt his work?

Themes to talk about

Tips for the host

1. Open each meeting with one question everyone can answer, then go deeper.
2. Anyone who fell behind can catch up with the 15-minute summary.