Offil, Jenny, Department of Speculation is inventive and clever: a new universe, a new way of exploring life in words. The wife and the husband share an over-the-top love and marriage until they don’t. So many random, seemingly unrelated speculations together form a cohesive, literary triumph. You can read this in one two-hour setting but you’ll want to set it down, take a walk, ponder, then return to Offill’s intricate world of desire, fear, connection, disintegration, and life’s rhythmic pace. Wow!

Beautifully written, this is a look at the life of a single woman who thought her marriage would be so smooth and satisfying. As we all know that's not true and as the seemingly random writings emerge they begin to form a picture of what at times appears to be a funny relationship as she tries to keep going.

I absolutely loved this small gem of a book that focuses on a marriage. Jenny Offill has created a sad, poignant, yet also funny and hopeful book that had me underlining many passages. This is a book I will return to again and again.