Dept. of Speculation

I just couldn't connect to the characters. I couldn't get involved, I didn't care as much as I should have.

Certain lines are beautiful, or heartbreaking, or both. There are chapters where the book easily reaches five-star quality. Those pieces will stick with me, I'm sure. But the book as a whole will not.

My plan was to never get married. I was going to be an art monster instead. Women almost never become art monsters because art monsters only concern themselves with art, never mundane things. Nabokov didn't even fold his own umbrella. Vera licked his stamps for him.

book is too devastating to handle

This is a wandering story touching on so many different wandering topics, but at its core this is a story about the day to day workings of a marriage. I am completely in love with Jenny Offill's writing. Her short vignettes often seem disjointed and unconnected but as you press on through the book they slot together like jigsaw pieces, and by the time you get to the last page the whole picture has been revealed in all its glory. Skillful, deft, and pretty much perfect.