Cooking for Harry

Reader's Guide

1. What do you think about Harry’s cooking—and eating? What role does it play in his life? In his marriage? When did it become an issue?

2. Why doesn’t Francie really notice or object to Harry’s slow, constant weight gain? What does she have to gain by ignoring it? What does she stand to lose by addressing the ever-growing problem?

3. How is Harry’s cooking and eating a family concern? What
roles do the various family members play in his weight gain and
weight loss (consider the children’s nicknames)? How does the
family contribute to the problem and its solution? Do you think
this family is dysfunctional?

4. Why does it take a talking scale to tell Harry the truth?

5. How does Harry’s community—his neighbors and associates—
react to his diet? If you have ever dieted, do you find their responses
to his dieting typical? Why are friends not always the most supportive people when it comes to dieting and other significant habit changes?

6. Eating is one of life’s great pleasures. When does it go from
being a pleasure to being a problem? When, if ever, is some kind
of intervention appropriate? In your own experience, does intervention
work?

7. Harry’s diet, with its gym regimen and support groups, takes
up a lot of his time and, it seems, starts making him into a
new, improved person. Why doesn’t this lead straight to happiness?
When and how does this start to be a problem for
Francie?

8. What does Francie’s high school relationship with Lisa tell us
about Francie? What emotions and assumptions from this old
relationship have lingered in Francie and affect how she looks
at life in middle age?

9. “People change,” Francie says, then admits that she hasn’t.
How has dieting changed Harry in unexpected ways? How does
Francie have to change?

10. Discuss Kay-Marie James’s use of images and symbols: the
scale, a storebought cake, a borrowed handkerchief, a white
sofa. What stories do these objects tell?

11. How is adultery handled in this book? Lightly? Forgivingly?
Believably? Can adultery ever be good for a marriage?

12. What do you think of Francie going on her anniversary
cruise with Tommy Choi? Was it fair play? Too risky? In what
way was the storm “perfect”?

13. Malva, the neighbor, says, “There are two hundred sides to
every story. . . . But all of them end the same. Somebody has to
apologize.” Who should apologize for what in this novel?

14. What factors ultimately save Francie and Harry’s marriage?

15. Why do you suppose the author wrote Cooking for Harry
under a pseudonym? Do you have any idea which bestselling
New York Times author wrote this book? How can you support
your hunch?

16. How dietetic is this novel? Did it inspire you to go on or stay
on a diet—or did it make you hungry for a big, beautiful bowl
of buttered, salty popcorn?