Every Day Is for the Thief (Cole) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, use these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Every Day Is for the Thief:

1. The narrator finds on his return to Nigeria that to survive in his country, one must have "the will to be violent, a will that has to be available when it is called for." What does he witness that prompts him to make such an observation? Talk about what it means to live with the potential for violence and how it affects the human soul...and the collective "soul" of the nation's culture.

2. Cole derives the title of his book from the Yoruban proverb,"Every day is for the thief, but one day is for the owner." Why does he use the proverb as the title of his book...and why only the first part?

3. When he comes upon the scammers in the internet cafe, the narrator believes that the swindled and swindler deserve one another. Why does he feel that way...and do you agree or disagree? In what way are the yahoo-yahoos indicative of the Nigerian culture?

4. In what way, is Nigeria, as the narrator says, "a hostile environment for the life of the mind"? How important are debates and "contradictory voices" to intellectual vibrancy?

5. After a dispiriting visit to the National Museum, the narrator wonders what the "social consequences [are] of life in a country that has no use for history." How important is an understanding of history? And whose history gets told? Do U.S. citizens have an understanding of their national history?

6. How would you describe daily life in Lagos—its culture, poverty, and corruption?

7. Talk about whether or not Cole's pared down writing style and episodic structure lessens the novel's ability to flesh out its characters. Are any of his characters fully developed? Or is character exploration not his purpose?

8. What affect do the photos have on your reading of this novel? Why does Cole use them? Does he over-rely on the photos? Do they enhance or detract from his narrative?

9. The narrator tells us that this story is "an inquiry into what it was I longed for all those times I longed for home," which brings to mind the Thomas Wolfe title "You Can't Go Home Again." Does the narrator find what he has longed for? What has he found...or not found?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

top of page (summary)