Want Not by Jonathan Miles, discussion guide: Home
Articles, Interviews, and Reviews
Some article may require you to login with your library barcode number.
-
One Man's Trash is Another's Treasure, and Another's CrimeNew York Times Book Review, Dec. 24, 2013
-
At Your DisposalNew York Times Book Review Nov. 10, 2013
-
'Want Not,' by Jonathan Miles, is the Best Trashy Novel of the YearWashington Post Nov. 26, 2013
-
Want Not by Jonathan MilesThe Rumpus Feb. 13, 2014
-
Jonathan Miles on Want Not, His New NovelWNYC Leonard Lopate Show Interview, Dec. 9, 2013
-
Waste Management: On Jonathan Miles's Want NotThe Millions Jan. 29, 2014
-
Interview with Jonathan Miles, Author of Want NotAudiochic Nov. 11, 2013
Discussion Questions
1. How did you experience the book? Were you engaged immediately, or did it take you a while to
"get into it"? How did you feel reading it—amused,
sad, disturbed, confused, bored...?
2. Describe the main characters—personality traits, motivations, inner qualities.
• Why do characters do what they do?
• Are their actions justified?
• Describe the dynamics between characters
(in a marriage, family, or friendship).
• How has the past shaped their lives?
• Do you admire or disapprove of them?
• Do they remind you of people you know?
3. Do the main characters change by the end of
the book? Do they grow or mature? Do they learn something about themselves and how the world works?
4. Is the plot engaging—does the story interest you? Is this a plot-driven book: a fast-paced page-turner? Or does the story unfold slowly with a focus on character development? Were you surprised by the plot's complications? Or did you find it predictable, even formulaic?
5. Talk about the book's structure. Is it a continuous story...or interlocking short stories? Does the time-line move forward chronologically...or back and forth between past and present? Does the author use a single viewpoint or shifting viewpoints? Why might the author have chosen to tell the story the way he or she did—and what difference does it make in the way you read or understand it?
6. What main ideas—themes—does the author explore? (Consider the title, often a clue to a theme.) Does the author use symbols to reinforce the main ideas? (See our free LitCourses on both Symbol and Theme.)
7. What passages strike you as insightful, even profound? Perhaps a bit of dialog that's funny or poignant or that encapsulates a character? Maybe there's a particular comment that states the book's thematic concerns?
8. Is the ending satisfying? If so, why? If not, why not...and how would you change it?
9. If you could ask the author a question, what would you ask? Have you read other books by the same author? If so how does this book compare. If not, does this book inspire you to read others?
10. Has this novel changed you—broadened your perspective? Have you learned something new or been exposed to different ideas about people or a certain part of the world?
Reserve a copy
-
Want Not by
ISBN: 9780547352206A three-pronged tale of human excess that sifts through the detritus of several disparate lives: a young freegan couple living off the grid in New York City; a once-prominent linguist, sacked at midlife by the dissolution of his marriage and his father’s losing battle with Alzheimer’s; and a self-made debt-collecting magnate, whose brute talent for squeezing money out of unlikely places has yielded him a royal existence, trophy wife included.
Also by Jonathan Miles
-
Dear American Airlines by
ISBN: 9780547054018
Recommended Reading
-
The Book of Illusions by
ISBN: 9780805054088A man's obsession with a silent-film star sends him on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love
If you liked Want Not, you might enjoy the following books.
-
Life after Life by
ISBN: 9780316176484What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. -
The Missing Person by
ISBN: 9780375415241Lynn Fleming happily abandoned dusty Albuquerque to study art history in New York, but when her younger brother disappears she reluctantly answers their mother’s summons and returns home. Although she soon finds Wylie among the eco-warriors for whom he’s a philosopher king, she begins to realize how much else is still missing. -
American Wasteland by
ISBN: 9780738213644As more people are going hungry while simultaneously more people are morbidly obese, American Wasteland sheds light on the history, culture, and mindset of waste while exploring the parallel eco-friendly and sustainable-food movements.