Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
It was simple to picture their future at first. They were young, ecstatic, and certain of their love for one another. Their code name for all the exciting unknowns that lay ahead was “Dept. of Speculation.” They later got married, had a child, and dealt with the typical difficulties of family life, such as a colicky baby, a failing marriage, and stagnant aspirations.
When their marriage abruptly breaks down, the wife attempts to retrace the events that brought them here, drawing inspiration from everyone from Kafka to the Stoics to missing Russian cosmonauts as she considers what is lost and what is left. Offill has written a masterfully suspenseful love tale in language that shimmers with wrath, need, and wit. The book is easy to read in one sitting, even though its searing meditations linger long beyond the final page.
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
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It appears as though the author sat down with a scrap of paper and just began writing down all the ideas racing through her suffering mind. She is going through the worst type of betrayal personally. She is battling with herself, torn between trying to understand what has transpired between herself and her husband, rationalizing the circumstance, and just yelling in excruciating and unadulterated anguish.
She provides numerous interesting and pertinent quotations as well as the daily details of attempting to parent her young daughter normally in the face of such hardship. This works in some way. I found myself thinking about Jamaica Kinkaid’s “See, Now, Then.” In the same frank way that she exposed her deteriorating marriage, she also wrote about it, leaving the reader gasping for air. It serves as a reminder to us all of how pervasive this specific type of suffering is, striking all female hearts with the same devastating force, regardless of race or culture.
The man and woman first meet, get married, buy a house, have a child, and go about their daily lives as a couple with a child. The wife is constantly distracted by the child, who cries a lot but stops when taken to the nearby pharmacy. As life progresses, the child matures, the marriage matures, and conflicts arise in the marriage. The wife organizes a party, the kid is enthusiastic, guests arrive, the kid mingles for a while, then declares, “Party over, go home.” The wife, the man, and the child all live this existence. Each word in this straightforward narrative has a purpose that is supported by its context.
Almost every line in the book is its own small little wonderful thing, and the entire book is actually composed of minuscule observations. On sometimes, it resembles a deadpan stand-up comedian riffing on whatever is on their mind. I could really identify with the protagonist’s rather troubled view of the current world as she struggles to hold on, maintain some semblance of sanity, and navigate her way back to herself. The book is full of insightful observations, even the seemingly unrelated quotes and information about the Voyager space mission all contribute to the feeling that the book is fully finished in its complexly honest depiction of the struggle to persist.
