In the Pool cover

In the Pool

by Hideo Okuda

A divorced man angry at his wife finds a painfully prominent outlet in a permanent erection; a model thinks every man on the street is a stalker; an overbearing magazine editor relieves his mid-life crisis by long-distance swimming . . . These are some of the patients who descend to the basement consulting room of Doctor Ichiro Irabu, an obese, eccentric neurologist with an injection fetish, an Oedipus complex, and a pea-green Porsche. This collection of five wacky stories has been adapted for TV and the movies in Japan.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?