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Jenny Offill · 2020
A librarian in New York processes climate anxiety, personal chaos, and the state of the world in a mosaic of fragments, aphorisms, and overheard conversations. Offill's formal technique is perfect for the fragmented attention of living in crisis. The pandemic year's perfect pre-pandemic novel.
The case against
Offill's fragments cohered in Dept. of Speculation because a marriage held them together; here the binding agent is mood, and the book reads like an exquisitely curated feed of dread. Sparse pages, no plot to speak of, a wisdom-joke rhythm that turns predictable by the midpoint. You finish in an evening and retain an atmosphere, possibly nothing else.
Best of Last 10 Years · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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