Jenny Offill - Dept of Speculation.

 Jenny Offill. Dept of Speculation. (United Kingdom: Vintage, 2014). 

A novel as a memoir, or a memoir as a novel? This novel plays with form as the narrative is fragmented. It tells the story of a writing teacher who is a wife and mother. It documents the relationship between the unnamed narrator with her husband, in short chapters, with reflective references to literary and cultural works. The style is spare, minimalist, and the effect is cumulative, as the reader shares the narrator’s attempt to make meaning of her life. 


See also these examples of short texts playing with form: 

Mr. Plimpton's Revenge: A Google Maps Essay, in Which George Plimpton Delivers My Belated and Well-Deserved Comeuppance 

Every Meal in Wuthering Heights in Order of Sadness 

Brooke Juliet Wonders’ Self Erasure - blackout poetry about suicide

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