Man's Search for Meaning: A Reader's Guide for The Wild Gentleman Book Club
Meeting #2 - September 10th, 2025
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
The Wild Gentleman Book Club
After our inaugural discussion centered on Gatsby and how experience changed our perceptions of the book, we turn to something that resonates a bit deeper: Viktor Frankl's meditation on finding purpose through personal choice, perseverance, and consciousness in the darkest of places: Nazi concentration camps.
Meeting Details
We are meeting on Wednesday, September 10, at Paddy's Public House in West Newton. We already have more people signed up than our first get-together, and I am excited to share the fantastic experiences of the first book club discussion with a larger group.
Details of this next book club meeting have been shared via this newsletter, The Wild Gentleman Instagram account, and through private email. If you missed these and would like to discuss Man's Search for Meaning or join this community in person, you can find all the information on this week's book club meetup here: The Wild Gentleman Book Club - Meeting #2.
Below is a reading guide for the second meeting. Also, you can get the shorter guide everyone brought to the last meeting here: printable Reading Guide.
Why Man's Search for Meaning for Men in 2025?
I'm sure a lot of us—successful in many areas of life—find ourselves asking: "What is the purpose of all this?"
Frankl's discovery that meaning is unique to each person and each moment, that there's no universal answer, only personal discovery, was forged in the concentration camps of World War II. The framework he offers for finding meaning transcends circumstances.
For men navigating life transitions, career pivots, relationship challenges, or simply the existential weight of modern life, Frankl's practical philosophy (logotherapy) has been tested in the most extreme conditions imaginable.
Discussion Guide
1. Concepts to Reflect on from Frankl's Philosophical Framework
Three Sources of Meaning
- Creative Values - The meaning found through our contributions—our work, creations, deeds, and actions that add something to the world. Examples include being a dad, running a business, mentoring others, coaching youth sports in your community, and writing a blog.
- Experiential Values - Finding meaning through what we encounter, appreciate, and receive from others and from life. Examples include experiencing truth, finding beauty in unexpected places, the power of love (as seen in Frankl's deepening love for his wife), or the unique individuality of another human being.
- You're not wasting time watching that sunset, meditating, or reading a book—you're discovering meaning.
- Attitudinal Values - We decide the stance we take towards unavoidable suffering and other unexpected circumstances. When we can neither create nor experience—when life corners us—we can still find meaning through the attitude we choose to adopt in the face of all life throws at us. Even when we can't change our fate, we can select our meaningful response to it.
- When we fail, face loss, or are met with a challenge, will we become embittered or grow from the experience?
The Existential Vacuum
- The emptiness many feel despite the ease and abundance of modern life
- How the pursuit of happiness actually leads to unhappiness
- The danger of living without purpose
2. Theme-Related Questions
Responsibility and Choice
- Where in your life have you surrendered your power to choose, and what would reclaiming that responsibility look like?
Success vs. Meaning
"Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue."
- How does this quote from the book challenge our achievement-oriented culture?
- How do we balance ambition with the understanding that meaning comes from dedication to causes greater than ourselves?
Suffering and Growth
- When have you realized a positive or found dignity in the midst of difficulty?
- What unavoidable suffering in your life could be reframed as an opportunity for meaning-making?
Love and Connection
"Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire."
- How do Frankl's approaches to love and connection challenge some stereotypes about masculinity and, specifically, the glorification of men's emotional independence (not needing others for emotional support, vulnerability as weakness, emotional self-sufficiency)?
- How does love—romantic, familial, fraternal—create meaning in life?
3. Reading Questions
1. Did anything surprise you about Frankl's account of the concentration camps? (Compared to other literary, fictional, and non-fictional accounts, for instance.)
2. How does Frankl's concept of meaning differ from our culture's emphasis on happiness?
3. Which of the three sources of meaning (creative, experiential, attitudinal) resonates most with your current life situation?
4. Frankl writes about the "decent" versus "indecent" people in the camps, noting they existed among both prisoners and guards. What does this say about human nature and choice?
5. How does the concept of "Sunday neurosis"—the depression that sets in when the busy week ends—relate to modern work culture and masculine identity?
6. The author suggests that the question isn't "What do I expect from life?" but "What does life expect from me?" How does this reframing change your perspective?
7. Where do you experience the "existential vacuum" in your own life? What fills that void—constructively or destructively?
8. How does Frankl's emphasis on meaning through service and connection challenge or complement traditional masculine values?
9. What does a concept like "tragic optimism"—saying yes to life despite pain and guilt, finding meaning in suffering without glorifying it, choice of attitude as ultimate freedom—look like in the context of modern fatherhood, partnership, or professional life?
Preparing for Future Discussions
Future Book Club Selections
For next month's book club selection (to be read throughout September), I am using some books suggested by subscribers and members of The Wild Gentleman Book Club.
Here's a bit on each book in this month's poll:
A Man Called Ove is about a grumpy widower who slowly opens his heart to his neighbors and shows the multitude of ways that men can express love.
The Old Man and the Sea is the classic Hemingway story of Santiago, a Cuban fisherman, who battles a giant marlin in an adventure that is awash in symbolism about life.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is one of the best books I've read over the past year and was discussed at the last book club meeting. In one sense, a succinct guide on how to read Russian short stories; however, in another sense, it is a master class on how to pay attention to what truly matters in life.
The River Why is about a young fishing obsessive who runs away to live alone in the woods, discovering that solitude might not be the answer to what he seeks.
Please make a selection in the poll below.
For future suggestions for book club books, please email me here: dennis@thewildgentleman.com
Final Thoughts
Frankl survived the concentration camps with an approach that, while we cannot always control what happens to us, we can always control how we respond to it. In a culture that often tells men to "tough it out" or "move on," Frankl offers a better alternative: to find meaning in suffering, to discover purpose in pain, and to choose a response regardless of circumstances.
The key takeaway is to recognize that if meaning could be found in one of the worst experiences we can imagine, it can be found anywhere. The question isn't whether your life has meaning, but whether you're willing to discover and create it.
Wednesday night, we're not just discussing a book written 75 years ago. We're asking: If Frankl could find meaning in hell, what's our excuse? And more importantly: What meaning are we brave enough to create in our beautifully complex, perfectly imperfect lives?
See you at Paddy's. Bring your marked-up book and your real questions."
The Wild Gentleman Book Club. Where thoughtful men gather to explore literature, meaning, and authentic masculinity.
