Switzy Book Club Questions
by Emma Cline
These questions assume everyone has finished the book and contain spoilers, including the ending.
Switzy is rich with moral gray areas, unreliable memories, and family tensions, so it gives a book club plenty to argue about. The novel asks you to weigh autonomy, loyalty, and self-interest without offering easy answers, and its quiet details reward close reading.
Use these questions to guide your conversation, or pick a few that spark the strongest reactions. You do not need to go in order. Let everyone share first impressions, then dig into the choices that made you uncomfortable, curious, or divided.
Autonomy, Consent, and Secrecy
- 1.David decides to go through with assisted death in Zurich while hiding his diagnosis and plan from Rebecca, even though Cody and Stearns know. Did you agree with his choice to keep Rebecca in the dark?
- 2.Ghoul repeatedly asks whether David still wants to go through with it and tells him he can cancel, but David cannot tell if he passed her test. What does this process reveal about consent and David's autonomy?
- 3.At the club dinner, David cannot pay the check because his eyes are swimmy, Rebecca handles it, and he later emails her about dying in Switzerland. Why is he more able to explain himself in writing than in person?
- 4.Ghoul tells David to give the dog chocolate, and David supposes he is the dog. What does this moment suggest about David's dignity and control at the end of the process?
Cody: Caretaker, Gatekeeper, Opportunist
- 5.Cody holds powers of attorney and medical attorney, controls David's phone location, and David suspects he has taken mid-six figures from him. How did this affect your reading of Cody as caretaker versus opportunist?
- 6.Rebecca complains that she has to go through Cody to reach David, and later she points out that Cody never came inside when David accuses him of losing the phone. How does Cody's gatekeeping shape David's family relationships?
- 7.David sees Cody with Sam, notices Sam wearing his sweater, and hears the bartender call Cody 'Mr. Hastings.' How does this scene dramatize David's fear of being replaced and losing his identity?
Memory, Guilt, and Aging
- 8.David waits an hour to see Tom, apologizes, and Tom says he barely remembers that time and cannot give David what he is looking for. Did Tom's response feel fair? Did David get the reconciliation he wanted?
- 9.The senior prank on Tom, when Freddie fires a gun into the woods and Tom returns changed, haunts David. How does this memory shape our understanding of David's guilt and his late attempt to apologize?
- 10.David's cognitive decline appears through details like ROSE CHAIR APPLE, the clock he cannot draw, room 752, persimmon soap, and his notebook. How does the novel use these small failures to build its portrait of aging?
Mortality, Symbolism, and Dread
- 11.In Rainer's room, David cries at the train set and calls such miniature worlds religious objects. Why does the train set move him so deeply, and how does it connect to memory, godlike control, and mortality?
- 12.Annabel lies still while her bicycle is stolen and feels freed; David connects this to his own leaving. Is this parallel convincing, and did you read David's death as freedom, surrender, or something else?
- 13.In the restaurant, David sees Death in the waiter, busboy, other diners, Cody, and his own hands. How does this scene change the tone from practical planning to existential dread?
The Final Journey and Its Rituals
- 14.The final chapter shows David signing paperwork, saying aloud that he understands he will die, taking the barbiturate, and holding Cody's hand. How did the ending affect you—was it peaceful, disturbing, or both?
- 15.The private plane is tied to Stearns's bonus depreciation write-off, and Stearns sends black-and-white cookies aboard. How does the novel use wealth and business ritual to frame David's final journey?