Firmin Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Literary Rats and our BookBrowse Review of Firmin.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

About this Guide
To escape his hard life on the streets of 1960s Boston, Firmin takes refuge amid the stacks in Pembroke's Books, losing himself in literature's faraway worlds one volume at a time. What makes Firmin unique, though, is not his voracious appetite for reading, but that he actually eats some of the books he's read. You see, Firmin is a rat - a gifted, imaginative rat who possesses a wise soul. In this inspired and poignant novel, Firmin takes readers along as he struggles to survive in the heart of Boston's notorious Scollay Square, revealing what it means to be an animal cursed - and blessed - with human instincts.

The award-winning Firmin has been heralded by Publishers Weekly as "an alternately whimsical and earnest paean to the joys of literature," and the following questions are intended to help direct discussion of this compelling and unconventional tale.

Reader's Guide

1. Chapter One of Firmin begins, "I had always imagined that my life story - would have a great first line." How would your autobiography begin?
   


2. Discuss anthropomorphism, the literary device that allows human characteristics to be assigned to non-human beings. Why do you think the author chose to employ this method in the novel? Would the story have been different if Firmin's tale was told by a third party?
   


3. Continuing on this theme, why do you think the author chose a rat as his narrator? Could the story have been told from the vantage point of another animal? What makes Firmin so unique among his brethren in the wild kingdom?
   

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