Full disclosure: I got about 1/4 of the way in and stopped. The questions are interesting but what's the point? At least the If book allows you to think about questions and talk with others about questions. This is so much yes/no. I also hoped against hope that, like The Lovers' Dictionary by David Levithan that uses definitions to reveal the story of a relationship, that something meaningful would develop. Nope. What would possibly possess someone to write a 165 page book with sentences ending only in question marks? And why would a reader indulge in such a interrogative literary journey? Might it be a stunt in book-form? A tribute to an under-valued and under-appreciated punctuation mark? Or perhaps a manifesto on how little we know as individuals? And what if, while, reading said book, you found yourself alternating between intrigued, passionate, mind-boggled, and occasionally bored? Yet obviously never truly bored, for you always picked the book back up again? For here and there, a question would sweep you off your feet--perhaps a question on the meaning of life or chipmunks or the color of your socks--and you would think, Will I ever be able to look at the world again the same? And what if you got to the end of said book, and you thought, I can never recommend this to any of my friends--some will find it too literary, some too pretentious, some outright ludicrous, and a large portion of my friends will be offended by the author's obsession with asking rather direct and probably intentionally offensive questions about the reader's sex life--what can I do now? Can we know anything? Do questions mean anything at all?
What do You think about Interrogative Mood (2009)?
Is death approaching?Can you abide that?If not, what can you do about it?
—HUGHJACKMAN
More dense and slower reading than You and Me, but a great little book.
—Kyrell
Definitely one of the strangest books I've read.
—Penguin
