Memoir · Book club
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body book club questions
Here are 12 book club questions for Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
Hunger is Roxane Gay's memoir of her body — how it came to be the way it is, what she has thought about it, and what it means to live in a body that the world reads as a problem to be solved.
Roxane Gay · 2017 · 4h 0m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 12 questions
- 1.
Gay argues that she ate to make herself larger as a form of protection after her assault. How do you understand the relationship between the body and felt safety?
- 2.
The book refuses a recovery narrative. How did that affect your experience of reading it? Did it feel more or less honest than memoirs that end with transformation?
- 3.
Gay describes the cruelty that fat people receive in public as culturally acceptable in a way that similar cruelty toward other groups is not. Do you agree with that observation?
- 4.
She writes about the medical experience of fat patients — weight treated as the only relevant fact. Have you witnessed or experienced something similar in healthcare?
- 5.
The memoir is written in relatively short chapters and refuses to resolve its contradictions. What does that formal choice do to the reading experience?
- 6.
Gay says she both wants to lose weight and resents the cultural pressure to do so. She holds both without synthesis. What do you make of that refusal to choose?
- 7.
The book is explicit that Gay has not achieved peace with her body. Does that honesty make the book more or less useful for readers dealing with similar experiences?
- 8.
What does it mean to inhabit an unruly body in a culture that treats body management as a form of moral character?
- 9.
Gay writes about the assault only after establishing context for why it matters. How does the sequencing of that disclosure shape how you receive it?
- 10.
Who do you think this book is for? Is there an intended reader, and do you think it speaks equally to readers with different body experiences?
- 11.
Hunger is a memoir about a specific body, but Gay situates it in broader cultural and political context. Does the move between personal and political work for you?
- 12.
What does this book suggest about the relationship between trauma, desire, and the body that you hadn't encountered in quite this form before?
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 Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body?
Here are 12 book club questions for Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay, 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 body image, trauma, fatness and culture.
How long should a book club discussion of Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body 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 Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body?
Body image, Trauma, Fatness and culture, Identity, Desire. 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 Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body or questions for other book club picks.
