Dept. of speculation
(Book)

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Published:
New York : Knopf, 2014.
Format:
Book
Physical Desc:
179 pages ; 19 cm
Status:
East Hampton Adult Fiction
FIC OFF

Description

"Dept. of Speculation is a portrait of a marriage. It is also a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all. Jenny Offill's heroine, referred to in these pages as simply "the wife," once exchanged love letters with her husband, postmarked Dept. of Speculation, their code name for all the uncertainty that inheres in life and in the strangely fluid confines of a long relationship. As they confront an array of common catastrophes--a colicky baby, bedbugs, a faltering marriage, stalled ambitions--the wife analyzes her predicament, invoking everything from Keats and Kafka to the thought experiments of the Stoics to the lessons of doomed Russian cosmonauts. She muses on the consuming, capacious experience of maternal love, and the near total destruction of the self that ensues from it, as she confronts the friction between domestic life and the seductions and demands of art. With cool precision, in language that shimmers with rage and wit and fierce longing, Jenny Offill has crafted an exquisitely suspenseful love story that has the velocity of a train hurtling through the night at top speed. Exceptionally lean and compact, Dept. of Speculation can be read in a singlesitting, but there are enough bracing emotional insights in these pages to fill a much longer novel. "--

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Location
Call Number
Status
East Hampton Adult Fiction
FIC OFF
On Shelf
Location
Call Number
Status
Bill (LPL) Adult Fiction
F Offill
On Shelf
Branford/Blackstone Adult Fiction
FICTION
On Shelf
East Lyme Public Adult Fiction
Offill, Jenny (Dept.)
On Shelf
Guilford Adult Fiction
FIC OFFILL
Due Jul 8, 2025
Hamden/Miller Adult Fiction
FIC/OFFILL
Display
Hamden/Whitneyville Adult Fiction
FIC/OFFILL
On Shelf
Lyme Adult Fiction
FIC OFF
On Shelf
Madison/Scranton Adult Fiction
F OFFILL
On Shelf
Meriden Adult Fiction
FIC OFFILL
On Shelf
Old Lyme A Fiction
FIC OFFILL
On Shelf
Orange/Case Adult Fiction Book
Fiction Offill
On Shelf
Wallingford Adult Fiction
OFFILL
On Shelf
Woodbridge Adult Fiction
FIC OFFILL
On Shelf

More Like This

Other Editions and Formats

More Details

Language:
English
ISBN:
9780385350815, 0385350813

Notes

Description
"Dept. of Speculation is a portrait of a marriage. It is also a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all. Jenny Offill's heroine, referred to in these pages as simply "the wife," once exchanged love letters with her husband, postmarked Dept. of Speculation, their code name for all the uncertainty that inheres in life and in the strangely fluid confines of a long relationship. As they confront an array of common catastrophes--a colicky baby, bedbugs, a faltering marriage, stalled ambitions--the wife analyzes her predicament, invoking everything from Keats and Kafka to the thought experiments of the Stoics to the lessons of doomed Russian cosmonauts. She muses on the consuming, capacious experience of maternal love, and the near total destruction of the self that ensues from it, as she confronts the friction between domestic life and the seductions and demands of art. With cool precision, in language that shimmers with rage and wit and fierce longing, Jenny Offill has crafted an exquisitely suspenseful love story that has the velocity of a train hurtling through the night at top speed. Exceptionally lean and compact, Dept. of Speculation can be read in a singlesitting, but there are enough bracing emotional insights in these pages to fill a much longer novel. "--,Provided by publisher.

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Citations

APA Citation (style guide)

Offill, J. (2014). Dept. of speculation. Knopf.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Offill, Jenny, 1968-. 2014. Dept. of Speculation. Knopf.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Offill, Jenny, 1968-, Dept. of Speculation. Knopf, 2014.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Offill, Jenny. Dept. of Speculation. Knopf, 2014.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.

Staff View

Grouped Work ID:
6dab7aa2-c2dc-6b8f-1731-f5f829f5a18d
Go To Grouped Work

Record Information

Last Sierra Extract TimeJun 27, 2025 11:40:19 AM
Last File Modification TimeJun 27, 2025 11:55:02 AM
Last Grouped Work Modification TimeJul 01, 2025 10:18:21 PM

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