What We Lose (Clemmons) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for What We Lose ... then take off on your own:

1. Thandi and her mother's relationship is at the center of this novel. How would you describe it? What issues are at the heart of their disagreements? Consider immigration, motherhood, gender.

2. How would you describe Thandi? What contributes to her sense of feeling like an outsider? Have you ever experienced a sense of not belonging?

3. Follow-up to Question 2: Thandi has been told "But you're not, like, a real black person." How does this add to her sense of alienation?

4. In what ways does her mother's death affect Thandi. Talk about how her grief manifests itself in decisions that may not be the best for her future.

5. Thandi confesses, "My theory is that loneliness creates the feeling of haunting." What does she mean?

6. Zinzi Clemmons' novel is a cornucopia of storytelling. Her narrative incorporates hand-drawn charts, photographs, rap lyrics, philosophical meditations on things as varied as the Mandelas and racism. How do these devices add to or detract from your experience of reading the novel?

7. How is being black in American different from being black in Johannesburg.

8. How does Thandi come to see her place in the world? How does she finally come to grips with her identity? Does she ever find home…or feel at home?

9. This novel, mostly about grief, is in parts funny. Where do you find humor?

10. Talk about the significance of the book's title.

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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