Black Bag Book Club Questions & Discussion Guide

About this book

A struggling actor accepts an unusual role: to spend a full term attending university lectures zipped inside a large black bag, part of a psychology experiment testing how the other students react. Inspired by a true story, Luke Kennard's novel is a twisted campus satire and a strange love story, sharply written and very funny. Beneath the comedy sits a pointed, unsettling look at modern masculinity, performance, and the experience of being watched.

Discussion questions

1. The premise is deliberately absurd: an actor spends a term in lectures zipped inside a black bag. What was your first impression of that setup, and did the book make you take it seriously?
2. This is a sharp, funny campus satire with real strangeness underneath. If it ever lost you, what pulled you back, the comedy, the voice, or the central experiment?
3. The narrator agrees to disappear into a bag to be observed. What did that choice reveal about him, and about what he is willing to do to be seen, or unseen?
4. Beneath the satire, the judges expect a lot of debate about modern masculinity. Where did the book land for you on that, and did you find its portrait fair?
5. The experiment is about watching how others react to the bag. What did the novel ultimately seem to say about observation, performance, and how we behave when we think we are being watched?
6. Kennard is a poet, and the prose is sharply crafted. How did the sentence-level wit shape your experience, and did the humor deepen the book or keep it at arm's length?
7. The university setting is the stage for the whole experiment. How did that closed academic world make the premise work, and what did it let the book satirize?
8. Did this remind you of another campus satire, or another story about alienation and performance, in a book, a film, or life?
9. The book is, oddly, a love story too. Did that thread land for you, and did it change how you read the man in the bag?
10. Who would you hand this to next, the reader who loves dark, clever campus satire or someone who enjoys an absurd premise taken seriously, and who might it not be for?

Themes to listen for

• Performance and being watched
• Modern masculinity
• Alienation and observation
• Academia satirized
• Identity

If your club liked this, try…

• Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
• Real Life by Brandon Taylor
• Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
• Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Where to get it

• Check availability at your local library
• Find it on Bookshop.org

Practical notes

Best for clubs that enjoy dark, clever satire. Expect a lively debate about modern masculinity.

Content notes: Sexual content.