2014
A Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Vogue.com, Electric Literature, Buzzfeed
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 9 1/2 stars |