A review by oxnard_montalvo
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill

3.0

Another must read from 2014, which was compulsively readable, but I wouldn't go so far as to describe it as 'breathtaking' as The New York Times did. It's unconvential in style with every paragraph being made up of fragments of memory, tangential facts, snippets of conversation that summerize the essence of the mood Offil is going for. But while this is interesting, it doesn't delve. It's deliberately vague and mysterious, hinting at transgressions greater than what happens in reality- a man has an affair, a marriage suffers, there is hurt, maybe they break up or maybe they don't. Offil seems to be going for a kind of mythic tone of voice for a common enough story, and while there are moments of genuine warmth and feeling, particularly when recounting parental love, the novella as a whole remains cold and aloof.