Dept. of Speculation (Vintage Contemporaries)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • From the acclaimed author of Weather comes a slim, stunning portrait of a marriage—a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all.
“A startling feat of storytelling . . . Each line a dazzling, perfectly chiseled arrowhead aimed at your heart.” —Vanity Fair
In the beginning, it was easy to imagine their future. They were young and giddy, sure of themselves and of their love for each other. “Dept. of Speculation” was their code name for all the thrilling uncertainties that lay ahead. Then they got married, had a child and navigated the familiar calamities of family life—a colicky baby, a faltering relationship, stalled ambitions.
When their marriage reaches a sudden breaking point, the wife tries to retrace the steps that have led them to this place, invoking everything from Kafka to the Stoics to doomed Russian cosmonauts as she analyzes what is lost and what remains. In language that shimmers with rage and longing and wit, Offill has created a brilliantly suspenseful love story—a novel to read in one sitting, even as its piercing meditations linger long after the last page.
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Community Reviews
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Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
177 pages
What’s it about?
This is the story of a marriage at the breaking point. The narrator is "the wife". As we read she retraces the steps that got her to this point in her marriage.
What did it make me think about?
LESS IS MORE! How could an author manage to pack so much into 177 pages.
Should I read it?
This small book is a literary tour-de-force. It is disjointed, moving, and beautifully written. How did I miss it for so many years?
Quote-
"How has she become one of those people who wears yoga pants all day? She used to make fun of those people. With their happiness maps and their gratitude journals and their bags made out of recycled tire treads. But now it seems possible that the truth about getting older is that there are fewer and fewer things to make fun of until finally there is nothing you are sure you will never be."
If you liked this try-
The Animals by Christian Kiefer
Census by Jesse Ball
On Earth We're Breifly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
177 pages
What’s it about?
This is the story of a marriage at the breaking point. The narrator is "the wife". As we read she retraces the steps that got her to this point in her marriage.
What did it make me think about?
LESS IS MORE! How could an author manage to pack so much into 177 pages.
Should I read it?
This small book is a literary tour-de-force. It is disjointed, moving, and beautifully written. How did I miss it for so many years?
Quote-
"How has she become one of those people who wears yoga pants all day? She used to make fun of those people. With their happiness maps and their gratitude journals and their bags made out of recycled tire treads. But now it seems possible that the truth about getting older is that there are fewer and fewer things to make fun of until finally there is nothing you are sure you will never be."
If you liked this try-
The Animals by Christian Kiefer
Census by Jesse Ball
On Earth We're Breifly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
I didn’t enjoy listening to it. I think I’d prefer to read it. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. I don’t mind a stream of consciousness type of approach (I love Sigrid Nunez for instance), but this one just didn’t do it for me. I wanted to like it so badly. Here’s to hoping I’ll like it better reading silently vs listening to it. I’ll have to grab it from the library sometime.