7. Ben tells Olivia: “Lou was talking with me about those superheroes and how sometimes you need a person who is kind of a villain to take out the bigger villain. And the kind of villain who is … what did she say, only bad because people had been mean to them.” What does she mean by that? Are there villains in this novel, and if so, who?
8. Olivia initially describes Adam’s serial cheating as “essentially the golf of Adam’s busy schedule—a hobby I wasn’t interested in and was happy he did with other people.” For her, “In the end, I have to believe that marriages like ours last longer than the seemingly exciting, more volatile ones that soon fall prey to the whims of love.” Do you think there is any truth to that? Can a marriage still work if one spouse is unfaithful?
9. Olivia’s first panic attack comes when she tells Gus he needs to get out of “the monkey-house” that is L.A. What does she mean by that? How is L.A. portrayed in the novel?
10. Olivia says: “Growing up, we listen to love songs and believe that’s what real love is. As we get older, what sinks in is not that those songs are a fantasy, but that they simply aren’t about us.” Do you agree? How important is pop culture in shaping our self-image?
11. Olivia’s mom tells her: “Cheating is never about sex, honey.” Do you agree? What is Olivia’s relationship with sex throughout the novel? How is that tied up with her weight change?
12. Olivia admits that she isn’t necessarily a “good person”: “I was content with Adam because he never asked me to be a better person. He was kind of awful, too. God, we were terrible. In all these years of wanting to be envied and coveted, I never asked the simple fucking question whether or not I was good. Just good. Am I a good person? Because, it was never about people liking me. I never gave a shit about that. That’s why I was so free. I never cared.” What do you think? Is Olivia a “likable” narrator? Does it matter? Do you think you could do her job and be a nice person?
13. Discuss Caroline’s breakdown monologue: “Do you forget we’re people? Do you go into some zone when you’re asking about broken marriages and cheating spouses where you forget that I’m just a human being trying to get through the day? And if you say I signed up for this, you can go fuck yourself. I wanted to act because I had a shitty childhood and make-believing I could be anywhere else is how I got through it …” Do you agree, or do you think celebrities should be held to a different standard?
READING GROUP GUIDE
ALSO BY LIZA PALMER
GIRL BEFORE A MIRROR
NOWHERE BUT HOME
MORE LIKE HER
A FIELD GUIDE TO BURYING YOUR PARENTS
SEEING ME NAKED
CONVERSATIONS WITH THE FAT GIRL
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Liza Palmer is the internationally bestselling author of Conversations with the Fat Girl and five other novels. An Emmy-nominated writer, she lives in Los Angeles and works for BuzzFeed.
Visit her online at lizapalmer.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Epigraph
A Thousand Pounds
Swedish Fish
Tomato, Tomahto
The Adventures of Super Hobo and Sweaty Marble
You Look Lost
Roommate Issues
What the Stained Shirt Says
Petty
Rocket Needs a Groot
Hamburger Night for Vegans
Even Idiots Can Be Right About Fifth Chakras
Hulk
Maybe We Start There
Alex, I’ll Take Gluttonous and Selfish for $400
On Wisconsin
You Look Way Different Is All
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
Also by Liza Palmer
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE F WORD. Copyright © 2017 by Liza Palmer. All rights reserved. For information, address Flatiron Books, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.flatironbooks.com
Cover design by Jennifer Heuer
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-08347-0 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-250-08346-3 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781250083463
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First Edition: April 2017