Everything I Know About Love

In Chapter 38, the author of the satirical email assures the recipients that their relationship to Karen will change once she has her baby, the event itself will make her childless friends feel alienated, and her fellow parenting friends will feel inadequate. In what ways does this email demonstrate the very real ways in which friendships change in adulthood and the social expectations surrounding such milestones in Western culture?

Another chapter devoted to a satirical email, Chapter 9, describes in thorough detail an evening of literary and cinematic discussion. How might the reader interpret these descriptions and the email author’s voice to better understand Alderton’s view of and relationship to the artistic scene she inhabits?

The memoir occasionally uses lists to expand upon the memoir’s thematic concerns in a humorous way, such as “The Most Annoying Things People Say” and “Weekly Shopping List.” Choose one list chapter and consider what themes or ideas the list explores, and how that list’s placement in the narrative enhances your understanding of the chapters around it.

Use textual support from the “Everything I Know About Love At [Age]” chapters (Chapters 1, 11, 25, 42, and 45) to track the development of the memoir’s major themes—such as modern womanhood and female sexuality, long-term friendships, intimacy, or body confidence—and examine how the memoir uses these chapters as an occasion to theorize the different forms of love tethered to those themes.

Throughout the memoir, Alderton describes places she has lived with her family, her friends, and on her own. How does Alderton articulate the differences, if any, between finding a place to live versus making a home for oneself? At what point does she begin to think of a residence as being a home, and what kind of space does she create there?

Chapter 30 covers the death of Farly’s younger sister, Florence, whose leukemia diagnosis is mentioned only briefly in the preceding chapters. How does Alderton’s memoir contend with the processes of grief and mourning, and in what way does Florence’s death impact Alderton’s personal views of life and love? How does it affect her friendship with Farly?

Alderton’s relationship with David, the guru, is the most intense romantic relationship in the memoir and even though it does not progress into a long-term commitment, their conversations prompt Alderton to explore her inner self in ways she had not previously done. In your view, what is the most important discovery she makes during this relationship, and how does that revelation carry forward through the memoir’s remaining chapters?

As Alderton and her friends age, they feel pressured to meet certain social expectations, such as settling down, having children, or starting a career. How does Alderton meet or defy those expectations, and how does she learn to reconcile her current life with the life she imagined in her teenage years?