Key themes
- The marriage that nearly didn't survive — told from the middle of almost not surviving
- The woman artist and the impossible calculus of work and family
- The second person as a way of dissociating from pain you are living through
About this book
A marriage under strain is told in fragments — aphorisms, observations, diary entries — by a woman who refers to herself in the third person as 'the wife.' Offill's novel is formally radical and emotionally precise: a portrait of a relationship, a creative crisis and the ordinary catastrophe of trying to live alongside another person.
Published in 2014, Dept. of Speculation was shortlisted for the Folio Prize and the Pen/Faulkner Award. Offill said she wrote it in fragments because she was living in fragments — unable to sustain continuous thought while raising a young child.
Discussion questions
- The novel's narrator refers to herself at times as 'the wife' in the third person. What does this grammatical dissociation achieve — and when does it shift back to 'I'?
- The novel is full of quotations, facts and aphorisms alongside the personal narrative. How does Offill use this material — as a way of managing pain, as evidence for arguments, or as a formal strategy?
- The marriage almost breaks over an infidelity. How does Offill show the recovery — is it fully convincing, or does the novel leave doubt?
- The novel is preoccupied with the impossibility of being both a good mother and a serious artist. How does Offill engage with this question — does she resolve it?
- Dept. of Speculation is very short. How does Offill's compression serve the subject — and what does leaving things out do for the emotional weight?
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