Kockroach Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Tyler Knox and our BookBrowse Review of Kockroach.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. The author sets much of this story in the New York City of the 1950’s, the era of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and the McCarthy hearings, as well as the era of Kerouac, Ginsberg and the Beat Generation Why do you think he chose that setting for Kockroach’s metamorphosis?
2. The author uses different tense and person combinations in telling the story: the Kockroach chapters are told in third person present and broken up into short prose sections; the Celia chapters are told in third person past; the Mite chapters are told in the first person. Why do you think he made these choices and are they appropriate for each character?
3. Kafka never stated that Gregor Samsa, the protagonist in The Metamorphosis, transformed into a cockroach. The word he uses is akin to vermin, and a cleaning woman late into the story refers to Gregor as a dung beetle. Why then, in this twist on Kafka, did the author make Kockroach a cockroach? How would Kockroach fare in the human world if he metamorphosized from a cat? A dog? A spider? A hyena?

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