Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, What a Way To Go and our BookBrowse Review of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. "My mother tried to throw me clear of her own wreckage and I landed in a place as unlikely as any she could have imagined for me" (p. 225). How does Jeanette become reconciled to her birth story and adoption?


2. "It took me a long time to realise that there are two kinds of writing: the one you write and the one that writes you. The one that writes you is dangerous. You go where you don't want to go. You look where you don't want to look" (p. 54). How is Jeanette's life reflected in "you go where you don't want to go"?


3. Does Jeanette love her captor/tormentor who is her mother? In many ways Mrs Winterson is the powerful center of the book. Do you agree?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Grove Press. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.