Jenny OffillRecensioner

I read for the writing and this is my book. As someone has written "each paragraph is a polished gem and each sentence" a perfect facet of that gem. I thought [b:Dept. of Speculation|17402288|Dept. of Speculation|Jenny Offill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1367929545l/17402288._SX50_.jpg|24237023] was one of my favorites and this funny, quirky, anxious tale joins the bandwagon.
[b:Weather|37506228|Weather|Jenny Offill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566942482l/37506228._SY75_.jpg|59116540] is comforting even though the main character, Lizzie, is worried about environmental collapse and her brother is hovering at breakdown and her marriage is going through a rough bit, she is comforted by the survival techniques she reads about at the library where she works as a feral librarian (meanng not degreed). She relates hilariious moments with patrons. I looked forward to the style and tidbitty factoids offered and liked Lizzie, identified with her concerns even if I'm not a youngish mother working fulltime and trying to help a disintegrating brother in the midst of a divorce.

I don’t know how to feel about this book.

Each sentence is beautifully written, but disjointed from the others. It’s almost stream-of-consciousness, but then there is a plot twisted into it. It rambles, yet somehow no words are wasted.

The storytelling is not my style, I’ve concluded, but I can’t discredit the author’s way with words. Give it a shot. It’s so short that if you don’t like it, it’s still a book read and didn’t eat up too much of your time.

The first few chapters wowed me. Offill's writing was crisp and she had a talent for observing and writing about people. For example, who could forget the wife's experience of hiding something she dislikes at a restaurant and then find out that the restaurant's staff didn't care? However, I feel that the tone of the book somehow changed after the first few chapters, which affected my enjoyment of the book.½

An amusing book about adultery; educational too! I never knew that research shows men tend to have affairs after their oldest child turns six, our evolutionarily reptilian brains thinking that genetic investment is able to carry on without us now, so time to go create a different one. Or that Buddhists believe there are 121 states of consciousness, only 3 of which involve misery or suffering, though naturally we spend most of our time just in those three. I have no confirmation that these are true, mind, but they sound legit.

The book's heroine never intended to get married, and the book never intends to give the reader much of any idea about the husband. He exists, he is outlined, and then he cheats, and we're given the wife's reaction along with a steady stream of amusing factoids. Interestingly, the perspective shifts from first to third person once this trouble occurs, as if the character steps back from this clichéd situation to wryly observe the difficulty she's gotten herself into. "If only you'd stuck to your plan to be an Art Monster," her third person omniscient voice might say to her first person character, "this totally could have been avoided." Happily, however, the first person wrenches back control of the narrative at the last. It's always better to have loved.

There is a comparison in the style of this book to Renata Adler's Speedboat in that it is told in little episodic chunks. But Offill is funny; Adler is arch. Offill has a plot; Adler does not. Between the two I'll definitely take Offill.

Good writing, but no narrative coherence; i just didn’t get the point. Experimental style isn’t for me½

So good. I might have written it if I ever allowed anyone but Victoria to see my true self. Funny and full, pregnant really, of existential angst of a librarian, New Yorker, mother, trying to understand or at least simply navigate the quickly spiraling world.

Independent Reading Level: Grades K-3
Awards:Parenting Magazine Best Book of the Year, Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year

Simpel dingetje. Ontroerend een beetje. Makkelijk mee weggekomen van de schrijfster wel, vind ik. Dagboek van een meisje/vrouw.
Begrijp de buzz errond wel niet.

2/5

Perfect.

This is by no means a happy book. Reflecting on personal reactions an experiences during our currently trying times, Offill’s brief observations let us know we aren’t alone in this crisis. I think I need to own this book, for reassurance and affirmation.
Small text postings, insightful and beautifully written

This is a terrific, small novel about humans - getting along & not - with numerous insights and delightful writing.

Surprising structure and simple yet stunning insight into the workings of marriage and parenthood. A quick read full of unexpected turns of phrase and twists of feeling. One woman's story of straddling the dream of living as an "Art Monster" and life as a partner and parent. Bristling with ache, whimsy, and wounding.

Series Info/Source: This is first book in The House Witch series. I borrowed this ebook through Kindle Unlimited.

Thoughts: This was a poetic and intriguing. It's basically a stream of conscious thoughts from a woman as she deals with falling in love, marrying, a miscarriage, another pregnancy, raising a child, dealing with a cheating husband, and trying to mend everything back together.

It was very well done and a cynical and somewhat depressing look into American society. It does a good job of giving you an American slice of life...but does so from a somewhat depressing perspective.

I did really enjoy some of the obscure quotes and random bits of information that were included throughout. I also enjoyed a lot of the questions that the wife's daughter asked.

This brief but dense novella echoes a lot of the struggles people deal with as they age. For example, looking back at who you were and your dreams and trying to reconcile that with who you are 20 years later.

The whole thing is written in third person and the woman is known as "wife" and her husband is "husband". This is an interesting way to do things because it holds that characters at a bit of a distance that seems to mimic the distance the wife feels from a lot of the world around her. I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. The author narrates it herself.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was a brief and intense look at a woman's journey from lover to mother in modern American society. It is a fairly bleak story but has glimmers of light. I enjoyed a lot of the random facts in here and seeing American society from this unnamed woman's perspective. I would definitely consider picking up more books by Offill in the future.

3? 4? I enjoyed this lens for a fairly common story, it allowed for different insights. Of course I also don't enjoy Ferrante, if we're making these the only choices. (They are not the only choices.)

Such an odd little book.

A series of short paragraphs about a woman who gets a job as a ghost writer for an "almost astronaut" who wants to publish a book about the space program and to end with speculation on how to colonise the universe. Follows the timeline of her daughter growing up and events in her life: "Is she a good baby? People would ask me. Well no, Id say"; interspersed with quotations and bullet point facts; quotes of Ellison's voice recording on his phonograph; lists the recordings on the Golden Record for the Voyager mission; mnemonic for remembering the planets My Very Educated Mother Just Serves Us Noodles; quotes from Rilke, Ovid, T S Eliot, Darwin, Kant. Ultimately about love, marriage, divorce, raising children, yoga, middle age and adultery. Very quick read and fun, but not memorable.

Reading Dept. of Speculation made me a little wary at first. There have surely been enough novels written about arty-farty young New Yorkers going through angst in their relationships. My wariness only increased as I discovered that the characters are not named but are referred to as The Wife, The Husband, The Philosopher etc. Pretentiousness alert!

For all that, this is a book that I surprised myself by enjoying. Sure it’s ploughing some well-trodden ground, but it has the benefit of being written in a brief, crisp and to-the-point manner, never boring the reader. Offill plays with language cleverly; for example The Wife, who is a literature teacher, sometimes seems to be critiquing the novel she is appearing in. There is some wry humour, and I did laugh out loud a couple of times. A quick read, well-written, what’s not to like?

This was a quick two hour read. It was one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. I recommend to all!

"The Buddhists say that there are 121 states of consciousness. Of these, only three involve misery or suffering. Most of us spend our time moving back and forth between these three."

"The reason to have a home is to keep certain people in and everyone else out. A home has a perimeter, but sometimes our perimeter was breached by neighbors, by Girl Scouts, by Jehovah's Witnesses. I never like to hear the doorbell ring. None of the people I liked ever turned up that way."

Stream of consciousnesses, luckily it was short.

This is one of those modern novels that really isn't a novel--at least for the first half. There is an original, albeit autobiographical part to the story, but it is padded out by the well-read author's quotes from philosophers and writers, reports of the breakup of Carl Sagan's marriage, and other "facts". Given that the protagonist is a fact-checker, as was the author, this is to be expected. And certainly, one can construct a modern "novel" this way. It just depends on how interesting the author is and what kind of voice she has. In the case of this audiobook, we know what kind of voice Offill has, because she reads it herself. It is a very pleasant voice and there are times when we get the feeling that she has read a passage in an insightful way that a regular audiobook narrator might not have. Other times, we might wish for a little more craft in her reading, but not every author can read her/his book the way, for example, T.C. Boyle is able to do. When the story turns to the husband's infidelity and the wife's reaction to it, however, it is transformed. This is what all the noodling about and padding was intended so support. From that point, the book is much more absorbing, less random, and has much more of an effect on the reader--this one anyway. By the end, I was mostly won over. Still not sure this belongs on a Top 10 list or that anyone will have any reason to read it a hundred years from now, but--for the most part--well done.

Maybe I shouldn't have audiobooked this because if I'd read it I might have reread moments and appreciated language more. Maybe I shouldn't have read this so soon after A ROOM CALLED EARTH because I think both books have similar strengths but while many moments of the Ryan stuck with me, this didn't resonate as well.

Not sure what to make of that. A very short book consisting of short widely spaced paragraphs. Well not really paragraphs, more like diary entries. That's what it reads like. Random diary entries. From a librarian becoming obsessed with survivalism and wondering how best to cope with her mentally ill brother. Starts nowhere, leads nowhere.

I thought the novel was enjoyable and easy to read, and had a good sense of humor. But I didn’t really “get” what was going on, as a whole. Well, maybe parts. Perhaps if I had read it over the span of a couple days it would have been clearer to me. Or maybe I’m just a bit too obtuse. It’s written in a very non-linear way, I didn’t dislike that, and I appreciate the value of trying a new style. But maybe too hard for some people to grasp the basic drift of the story.

This was a listen rather than a read and maybe I would have liked it better as a read because it didn't really hold my attention. Possibly another reason for this is that the narrative jumps from the narrator's daily life chores to big questions about climate change and back again. Was there a point to the book? Maybe but it's not a very hopeful point. It seems that we are doomed but we just have to keep plugging along.½