1. Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents Ellen Ullman

    Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents

    Ellen Ullman
  2. Wayne White: Maybe Now I’ll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve Wayne White

    Wayne White: Maybe Now I’ll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve

    Wayne White
  3. A Year With Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary Brian Eno

    A Year With Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary

    Brian Eno
  4. Nancy Is Happy: Complete Dailies 1943-1945 (Vol. 1) (Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy) Ernie Bushmiller

    Nancy Is Happy: Complete Dailies 1943-1945 (Vol. 1) (Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy)

    Ernie Bushmiller
  5. The Sisters Brothers: A Novel Patrick deWitt

    The Sisters Brothers: A Novel

    Patrick deWitt
  6. The Writer’s Desk Jill Krementz

    The Writer’s Desk

    Jill Krementz
  7. Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West

    Miss Lonelyhearts

    Nathanael West
  8. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (Shambhala Library) Shunryu Suzuki

    Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (Shambhala Library)

    Shunryu Suzuki
  9. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia: A Novel Mohsin Hamid

    How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia: A Novel

    Mohsin Hamid
  10. The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? Padgett Powell Are you happy? Do we need galoshes? Are bluebirds perfect? Do you know the distinctions, empirical or theoretical, between moss and lichen? Is it clear to you why I am asking you all these questions? Should I go away? Leave you alone? Should I bother but myself with the interrogative mood? The acclaimed writer Padgett Powell is fascinated by what it feels like to walk through everyday life, to hear the swing and snap of American talk, to be both electrified and overwhelmed by the mad cacophony—the “muchness”—of America. The Interrogative Mood is Powell’s playful and profound response, a bebop solo of a book in which every sentence is a question. Perhaps only Powell—a writer who was once touted as the best of his generation by Saul Bellow and “among the top five writers of fiction in the country” by Barry Hannah—could pull off such a remarkable stylistic feat. Is it a novel? Whatever it is, The Interrogative Mood is one of the most audacious literary high-wire acts since Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine. Powell’s unnamed narrator forces us to consider our core beliefs, our most cherished memories, our views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In fiction as in life, there may be no easy answers—but The Interrogative Mood is an exuberant book that leaves the reader feeling a little more alive.

    The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?

    Padgett Powell

    Are you happy? Do we need galoshes? Are bluebirds perfect? Do you know the distinctions, empirical or theoretical, between moss and lichen? Is it clear to you why I am asking you all these questions? Should I go away? Leave you alone? Should I bother but myself with the interrogative mood?

    The acclaimed writer Padgett Powell is fascinated by what it feels like to walk through everyday life, to hear the swing and snap of American talk, to be both electrified and overwhelmed by the mad cacophony—the “muchness”—of America. The Interrogative Mood is Powell’s playful and profound response, a bebop solo of a book in which every sentence is a question.

    Perhaps only Powell—a writer who was once touted as the best of his generation by Saul Bellow and “among the top five writers of fiction in the country” by Barry Hannah—could pull off such a remarkable stylistic feat. Is it a novel? Whatever it is, The Interrogative Mood is one of the most audacious literary high-wire acts since Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine. Powell’s unnamed narrator forces us to consider our core beliefs, our most cherished memories, our views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In fiction as in life, there may be no easy answers—but The Interrogative Mood is an exuberant book that leaves the reader feeling a little more alive.

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