"Dept. Of Speculation" by Jenny Offill

Jenny Offill “Dept. Of  Speculation”

       A little gem of a novel, and I use the word “little” deliberately, as the dimensions of the book are 4 ½ inches by 7 ½ inches, and there are only 177 pages, with widely spaced text, which is broken up into passages of various lengths—from two lines to a page or two. One page is completely filled with the repeated phrase soscaredsoscaredsoscaredsoscared.

     Others are long streams of consciousness.

     Often the snippets are quotes from poets—John Berryman, Rilke—and from various philosophers.

       I’ll quote a few phrases from the blurbs on the cover, and I agree with them all:

       Michael Cunningham: “…resembles no book I’ve read before.”

       Dana Spiotta: “..deep, funny, and beautifully written…perfectly captures the absurdities and ironies of our moment.”

       Sam Lipsyte:  “…gorgeous, funny, a profound and profoundly moving work of art.”

       Lydia Millet: “…sad, funny, philosophical, and at once deeply poetic and deeply engaging.”

       

       And what is it about? Life, marriage, motherhood, love, bedbugs in New York, children at school and their parents, marital breakdown, heartache, juggling a career, 'ghosting' a book for an astronaut…I could go on.  Sometimes the narrator is first person: sometimes ‘the wife.’ The husband is always just ‘the husband,’ the long-time gay friend is 'the philosopher,' and her sister is just that—'her sister.”

       I must try to find a copy of  Jenny Offill’s first novel “Last Things,” which was noted as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times.