The Interrogative Mood
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- 6,49 €
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- 6,49 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
'If Duchamp or maybe Magritte wrote a novel it might look something like this remarkable little book of Padgett Powell's: immensely readable, ingenious, witty, and ultimately important-feeling in a way you can't quite describe but don't need to' Richard Ford
Are your emotions pure? Are your nerves adjustable? How do you stand in relation to the potato? Should it still be Constantinople? Does a nameless horse make you more nervous or less nervous than a named horse? In your view, do children smell good? ... Does your doorbell ever ring? Is there sand in your craw?
Is it a novel? Whatever it is, The Interrogative Mood is stubbornly memorable. Through a seemingly random but infinitely artful series of questions this small masterpiece mysteriously, elusively, hilariously, compellingly lights up life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Powell (Mrs. Hollinsworth's Men) is in playfully provocative, top form in this slender book fashioned solely as a series of questions beginning with his limpid first: "Are your emotions pure?" and ending with his prickly last: "Are you leaving now? Would you? Would you mind?" Thoughtful, cajoling and absurdist, Powell's random non sequiturs are not without their method, sounding some tenderly recurring themes, such as a middle-aged ruefulness for simpler times, a longing for more elegant forms in clothes, tools, cars and looks and a tenderness for elephants, dogs and children. At moments the questions become self-revelatory, as if the narrator is interviewing for a partner or friend ("Would you believe me if I tell you that I am a little fragile, psychologically speaking...?"), while also challenging the reader with pointed questions regarding ethical gravitas: "Are you bothered by your cowardice?" Hilarity, irony, and sheer perverseness vie to question essentially what we know and how what we know makes us what we are.
