Thursday 12 May 2011

The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell


A Novel?

Book

Are your emotions pure? Are your nerves adjustable? How do you stand in relation to the potato? This is how The Interrogative Mood opens. Three seemingly unrelated and random questions that make you pause for thought.



The thing is, after these three questions come three more equally random and thought provoking questions. And another three. And another.

In fact, you quickly realise that the entire page is simply filled with questions. The page becomes the whole of the first chapter and you start to ask yourself – but when is the plot going to begin?




The Interrogative Mood is an entire novel (?) filled with questions. Some of them are random and silly; others are designed to get you thinking about the greater good, life, the universe, and vegetables. How many people have you known called Bobby? Do you grasp Ohm’s Law? Does “bimbo” refer only to women?



There are three ways to read this book and all of them enjoyable. I have read the questions aloud to friends and pondered their answers. I have read this alone as a bold and mood changing experience. And I have left the book in my toilet for myself and other visitors to pick and peruse at random.

Would you enjoy this book as much as I did? Why don’t you find out for yourself?


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