Feast Your Eyes Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Controversial 20th Century Female Photographers and our BookBrowse Review of Feast Your Eyes.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. The novel itself is the catalogue from Lillian Preston's photography exhibit at MoMA. What do we gain from this nontraditional narrative framing? Does it grant us better insight into the characters? The photography?
2. The catalogue begins: "Feast your eyes, America. Here she is: America's Worst Mother, America's Bravest Mother, America's Worst Photographer, or America's Greatest Photographer." What does this proclamation reveal about the expectations of women as mothers and artists? How does it set the stage for what unfolds?
3. On page 32, it's noted that Lillian's portraits, which often featured nudity, "were a way for her to study what lay at the core of people." How does this concept of nudity differ from that of a male artist depicting a nude woman? Can this be understood as the "female gaze"?

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