--- product_id: 10414497 title: "Dept. of Speculation (Vintage Contemporaries)" price: "19851CFA" currency: XOF in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sn/products/10414497-dept-of-speculation-vintage-contemporaries store_origin: SN region: Senegal --- # Dept. of Speculation (Vintage Contemporaries) **Price:** 19851CFA **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Dept. of Speculation (Vintage Contemporaries) - **How much does it cost?** 19851CFA with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sn](https://www.desertcart.sn/products/10414497-dept-of-speculation-vintage-contemporaries) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • From the acclaimed author of Weather comes a slim, stunning portrait of a marriage—a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all. “A startling feat of storytelling . . . Each line a dazzling, perfectly chiseled arrowhead aimed at your heart.” — Vanity Fair In the beginning, it was easy to imagine their future. They were young and giddy, sure of themselves and of their love for each other. “Dept. of Speculation” was their code name for all the thrilling uncertainties that lay ahead. Then they got married, had a child and navigated the familiar calamities of family life—a colicky baby, a faltering relationship, stalled ambitions. When their marriage reaches a sudden breaking point, the wife tries to retrace the steps that have led them to this place, invoking everything from Kafka to the Stoics to doomed Russian cosmonauts as she analyzes what is lost and what remains. In language that shimmers with rage and longing and wit, Offill has created a brilliantly suspenseful love story—a novel to read in one sitting, even as its piercing meditations linger long after the last page. Review: A beautiful flash novella - My first book of 2023, was Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation, a flash novella about a woman experiencing first-time motherhood, a cheating husband, and writer's loneliness. First, a word about format. I'm reading a lot of flash novellas because that's what I want to write. In service of that, I made a list of well-regarded books that might fall into, or at least lie adjacent to, that quasi-category. My definition is that flash novella is a set of loosely linked short stories that form a (somewhat) cohesive whole. The individual stories or passages can often standalone, but are linked in theme, characters, and a sense of movement. Offill’s book (as well as a more recent one called Weather) are on my short, yet distinguished list (a couple more below). I loved this book. Its brevity makes it possible to finish in one sitting, but it's worth pacing yourself. As Offill describes in the interview below, the book doesn’t really have a plot. What it has is movement and escalation; a compelling narrator; beautiful, considering prose; and, individual passages worth slowing down for. There's also this wonderful subtle movement within the 3rd person perspective. The story is told partly in a distant 3rd person – the main characters are wife, husband, daughter, while first names are reserved for bit side characters. But there's another version, much more intimate, narrated as though the wife is talking about herself in the 3rd person. The passing from one to the other is seamless. Things happen, but most of the movement occurs through the inner workings of the wife, who has a great self-deprecating humor. The text on the page has a visual configuration reminiscent of poetry. There are typically 7-8 short paragraphs with large blank white spaces in between. The spaces have the effect of creating a consistent rhythm and pacing that pauses and brings the reader closer to the action and the prose. As a reader you pay attention differently, I think. And for the writer, they signify what’s left unsaid in the story and between the characters. Each passage (or paragraph) stands alone as its own micro story provoking emotion and contemplation regardless of where it leads. Here’s an example: Researchers looked at magnetic resonance images of the brains of people who described themselves as newly in love. They were shown a photograph of their beloveds while their brains were scanned for activity. The scan showed the same reward systems being activated as in the brains of addicts given a drug. ​ Ca-ching! Ca-ching! Ca-ching! ​ For most married people, the standard pattern is a decrease of passionate love, but an increase in deep attachment. It is thought that this attachment response evolved in order to keep partners together long enough to have and raise children. Most mammals don’t raise their offspring together, but humans do. ​ There is nowhere to cry in this city. But the wife has an idea one day. There is a cemetery half a mile from their apartment. Perhaps one could wander through it sobbing without unnerving anyone. Perhaps one could flap one’s hands even. This style of standalone, linked fiction is what I'm most drawn to right now. Aside from being funny, maybe I like the idea of stories, descriptions, and mundane but indelible moments not weighed down with the responsibility of being essential to the whole. Review: The Story Of A Marriage - In this short novel, Offill uses short paragraphs to illustrate a marriage, the arrival of a baby, an affair and then the decision to try to work things out in the marriage. The title comes from the love letters they would write each other, speculating on their future and what it would hold. They each had a stack of these. With the arrival of a daughter, they learn that there is another kind of love they could not imagine before she came to them. But the strain of caring for a dependant child while working can often lead to marriage partners not spending enough time with and for each other. This book was named one of the ten best books of 2014 by the New York Times Review. Her work has received other awards such as being selected as a New York Times Notable Book and listed for the Women's Fiction Award. She was raised by two academic parents and attended UNC for her undergraduate degree. She works as a professor or visiting professor in various universities. It is amazing to see how she can build entire lives with short statements that accumulate and build a picture. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #54,746 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #649 in Psychological Fiction (Books) #1,519 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction #2,206 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 3.9 out of 5 stars 5,320 Reviews | ## Images ![Dept. of Speculation (Vintage Contemporaries) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1s0lwCr7oL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A beautiful flash novella *by W***E on January 31, 2023* My first book of 2023, was Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation, a flash novella about a woman experiencing first-time motherhood, a cheating husband, and writer's loneliness. First, a word about format. I'm reading a lot of flash novellas because that's what I want to write. In service of that, I made a list of well-regarded books that might fall into, or at least lie adjacent to, that quasi-category. My definition is that flash novella is a set of loosely linked short stories that form a (somewhat) cohesive whole. The individual stories or passages can often standalone, but are linked in theme, characters, and a sense of movement. Offill’s book (as well as a more recent one called Weather) are on my short, yet distinguished list (a couple more below). I loved this book. Its brevity makes it possible to finish in one sitting, but it's worth pacing yourself. As Offill describes in the interview below, the book doesn’t really have a plot. What it has is movement and escalation; a compelling narrator; beautiful, considering prose; and, individual passages worth slowing down for. There's also this wonderful subtle movement within the 3rd person perspective. The story is told partly in a distant 3rd person – the main characters are wife, husband, daughter, while first names are reserved for bit side characters. But there's another version, much more intimate, narrated as though the wife is talking about herself in the 3rd person. The passing from one to the other is seamless. Things happen, but most of the movement occurs through the inner workings of the wife, who has a great self-deprecating humor. The text on the page has a visual configuration reminiscent of poetry. There are typically 7-8 short paragraphs with large blank white spaces in between. The spaces have the effect of creating a consistent rhythm and pacing that pauses and brings the reader closer to the action and the prose. As a reader you pay attention differently, I think. And for the writer, they signify what’s left unsaid in the story and between the characters. Each passage (or paragraph) stands alone as its own micro story provoking emotion and contemplation regardless of where it leads. Here’s an example: Researchers looked at magnetic resonance images of the brains of people who described themselves as newly in love. They were shown a photograph of their beloveds while their brains were scanned for activity. The scan showed the same reward systems being activated as in the brains of addicts given a drug. ​ Ca-ching! Ca-ching! Ca-ching! ​ For most married people, the standard pattern is a decrease of passionate love, but an increase in deep attachment. It is thought that this attachment response evolved in order to keep partners together long enough to have and raise children. Most mammals don’t raise their offspring together, but humans do. ​ There is nowhere to cry in this city. But the wife has an idea one day. There is a cemetery half a mile from their apartment. Perhaps one could wander through it sobbing without unnerving anyone. Perhaps one could flap one’s hands even. This style of standalone, linked fiction is what I'm most drawn to right now. Aside from being funny, maybe I like the idea of stories, descriptions, and mundane but indelible moments not weighed down with the responsibility of being essential to the whole. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Story Of A Marriage *by S***D on August 4, 2024* In this short novel, Offill uses short paragraphs to illustrate a marriage, the arrival of a baby, an affair and then the decision to try to work things out in the marriage. The title comes from the love letters they would write each other, speculating on their future and what it would hold. They each had a stack of these. With the arrival of a daughter, they learn that there is another kind of love they could not imagine before she came to them. But the strain of caring for a dependant child while working can often lead to marriage partners not spending enough time with and for each other. This book was named one of the ten best books of 2014 by the New York Times Review. Her work has received other awards such as being selected as a New York Times Notable Book and listed for the Women's Fiction Award. She was raised by two academic parents and attended UNC for her undergraduate degree. She works as a professor or visiting professor in various universities. It is amazing to see how she can build entire lives with short statements that accumulate and build a picture. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction. ### ⭐⭐⭐ Honest and Devastating *by L***A on May 31, 2015* Jenny Offill's account of a relationship passing through its various stages, all from the perspective of "The Wife" is devastatingly true to life. I typically don't like stream of consciousness books, but this one pulled it off, thanks in part to the concise length. I was able to finish this one in two sittings, so the constant mental meandering didn't get wearisome. This is very much a "literary" book, so if you're looking for a plot, you won't find it in its conventional form here. It's very much character driven, and the turns of phrase Offill uses to describe what her protagonist feels about everything from raising a child to finding out that her husband had an affair are simply beautiful and incredibly insightful. The quotes and anecdotes woven throughout create a flow much like our own thoughts. I found that once I let myself get lost in that flow, I enjoyed the journey, even though it was gut-wrenching at times. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sn/products/10414497-dept-of-speculation-vintage-contemporaries](https://www.desertcart.sn/products/10414497-dept-of-speculation-vintage-contemporaries) --- *Product available on Desertcart Senegal* *Store origin: SN* *Last updated: 2026-07-07*