READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Why does Paré-Poupart love this work? Is his attachment primarily economic, physical, social, or emotional? Which explanation did you find the most convincing?

2. What does the book suggest about dignity and manual labor? Does dignity come from the work itself, from competence, from camaraderie, or from something else entirely?

3. Paré-Poupart repeatedly rejects mainstream consumer culture. Is his freeganism presented as a coherent philosophy or as a personal response to what he has witnessed? 

4. What role does humor play in the memoir? Is the dark humor merely a coping mechanism, or is it part of what makes the work subtly meaningful?

5. The book is heavily peopled with eccentric characters. Which figures remained with you most strongly, and why? Are these people portrayed as individuals, symbols, or both?

6. Does the memoir romanticize garbage collection? Where does it seem most honest? Where, if anywhere, does it seem to mythologize the profession?

7. Paré-Poupart frequently describes chaos, danger, exhaustion, and injury. Why do these hardships seem to deepen rather than diminish his attachment to the work?

8. The author earned advanced degrees yet remained a garbageman. How does this complicate common assumptions about education and social mobility; what does it say about social perceptions?

9. Why do you think Paré-Poupart fills the memoir with references to writers and thinkers such as Victor Hugo, Pierre Bourdieu, and George Bataille?

10. What effect does the book’s blunt, profane voice have on its credibility? What is the difference between being discarded by society and choosing to live outside of it?

11. The book argues that society ignores people who handle its waste. What other forms of labor/profession do we similarly render invisible?