None of the people I liked ever turned up that way. of Speculation was their code name for all the thrilling uncertainties that lay ahead. But sometimes our perimeter was breached by neighbors, by Girl Scouts, by Jehovah's Witnesses. Offill is a smart writer with a canny sense of pacing. The wife remarks, 'The reason to have a home is to keep certain people in and everyone else out. of Speculation, charts the course of a marriage through curious, often shimmering fragments of prose. I loved getting a glimpse of the way a couple navigates the world and their own little terrain. It's also intriguing, beautifully written, sly and often profound. The book is absorbing and highly readable.

Jenny Offills heroine, referred to in these pages as simply the wife, once exchanged love letters with her husband postmarked Dept. It is also a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all. of Speculation comes a darkly funny and urgent (NPR) tour de force about a family. of Speculation is a portrait of a marriage. If all that scares you off, I should tell you: be brave. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the beloved author of the nationwide best seller Dept. Not to mention the fact that the characters, a young couple, are referred to only as 'the husband' and 'the wife.' No names are ever used. By which I mean that the narrative isn't a series of flowing scenes that keep you reassuringly grounded in plot, but a collection of vignettes, observations and quirky details that are sometimes pulled from real life. Make no mistake, this is an experimental novel. It's an unusual book not only in terms of its size, but also its form. Not the lives our pre-adult selves imagined having, but the emotional grist that most of us actually end up with. of Speculation, which weighs in at 192 pages soaking wet and includes a fair amount of white space, is extremely short for a novel. Of Speculation is a perfect, condensed (as in nothing spare or superfluous every word is knife point) chronicle of lives lived with full-on, unapologetic drama and baggage. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Dept.

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