'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 FordAre 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.
The Interrogative Mood
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'Exuberant and funny... The sheer, lunatic variety of Powell's surreal questionnaire exerts a cleverly hypnotic influence' --Sunday Times
'Brilliantly bizarre' --Grazia
'Gradually enthralls with its kaleidoscopic interrogation of personality, morality and life itself' --Sunday Telegraph
'Very amusing, and a lot more' -- Evening Standard
'Mad and original ... Very funny, and occasionally so profound it makes you blink.' --Waitrose Weekend
'Brilliantly bizarre' --Grazia
'Gradually enthralls with its kaleidoscopic interrogation of personality, morality and life itself' --Sunday Telegraph
'Very amusing, and a lot more' -- Evening Standard
'Mad and original ... Very funny, and occasionally so profound it makes you blink.' --Waitrose Weekend
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Precise and beautiful, intimate and hilarious, you will never have read anything quite like it
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Interrogative Mood is a fiction made up entirely of questions, but I had imagined that like a 'conventional' novel it was going to have a narrative. In fact it's much stranger than that and less pin-down-able. The questions are put to you, the reader, to answer, and many are thought-provoking, some are silly, some are odd enough to suggest something of the mind of the questioner. But I never really got to the bottom of what was happening, and although the overall effect was interesting (and my mind would wander back to the questions over the next few hours) I didn't end up moved.
Is a book simply made up of questions a thinking tool, an open-ended piece of poetry, or a pleasant waste of time? Possibly all three.
Is a book simply made up of questions a thinking tool, an open-ended piece of poetry, or a pleasant waste of time? Possibly all three.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A most amusing book which you can dip in and out of at will. Well worth taking the time to read and then use it for quotes etc., I have enjoyed the book and now it goes as a present to a member of the family.
45 of 50 people found the following review helpful
By Big Jim
TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Is this book a novel? Is it a work of non-fiction? Is it even a book? What would you say if I said this was just a list of questions? What if they are humerous, interesting, thought provoking questions? Does the book warrant the hype it has received? Will you read it in a day like I did but think about it for many days afterwards? Is the format a conceit too far? Do you wish you'd had this idea first and made a fortune out of it? Is it worth the money? Why is this the first review of the book on Amazon UK when the book's been out a fortnight? Is this even a review? If so, isn't this a predictable and indeed pretentious way to do the review? Is the book worth buying? How many stars have I given this book? Am I taking this concept too far? Who said "yes" to the last question?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Paul Bowes
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
The most obvious point to be made about 'The Interrogative Mood' is that it is composed entirely of questions. Gilbert Sorrentino used the same formal device in 'Gold Fools' (1999) ten years before Padgett Powell, and at much greater length; so Powell can't even claim stylistic novelty. His book (subtitled 'A Novel?') has to stake its claim to the reader's attention on other merits.
There are many different types of question. What they all have in common - even the rhetorical question - is the assumption of someone to whom the question is addressed. Powell can't know who his readers are, and so what any given reader might respond to any given question. It isn't clear whether his unnamed questioner has a particular addressee in mind. So 'The Interrogative Mood' works by posing to unknown interlocutors successions of questions that seem more or less arbitrarily divided into sections that in a more traditional work might correspond to chapters. Some of these questions invite direct responses that are never forthcoming - unless the reader chooses to provide them. Some questions follow from others, but most do not - although as the reader progresses, certain patterns of recurrence make themselves felt.
Some of these questions are funny, some metaphysical, others disconcertingly personal or eccentric. Slowly, the vague outline of a guiding personality behind the interrogation - someone who may be more serious in his intent than at first appears - surfaces, only to submerge again with a new non sequitur.
The novel is an almost infinitely flexible form. Whether 'The Interrogative Mood' is in any meaningful sense a novel is beside the point.... Read more ›
There are many different types of question. What they all have in common - even the rhetorical question - is the assumption of someone to whom the question is addressed. Powell can't know who his readers are, and so what any given reader might respond to any given question. It isn't clear whether his unnamed questioner has a particular addressee in mind. So 'The Interrogative Mood' works by posing to unknown interlocutors successions of questions that seem more or less arbitrarily divided into sections that in a more traditional work might correspond to chapters. Some of these questions invite direct responses that are never forthcoming - unless the reader chooses to provide them. Some questions follow from others, but most do not - although as the reader progresses, certain patterns of recurrence make themselves felt.
Some of these questions are funny, some metaphysical, others disconcertingly personal or eccentric. Slowly, the vague outline of a guiding personality behind the interrogation - someone who may be more serious in his intent than at first appears - surfaces, only to submerge again with a new non sequitur.
The novel is an almost infinitely flexible form. Whether 'The Interrogative Mood' is in any meaningful sense a novel is beside the point.... Read more ›
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By thornyb
Format:Hardcover
This strangely intriguing book The Interrogative Mood is the author's journey through somewhere using questions only. Some of the questions are simple and some descriptive of the author's own knowledge and understandings. One feels compelled to keep reading and yet to go too fast means not spending time reflecting on your own answers to these soul-searching questions. It's definitely a book you can read more than once - though perhaps the second time would be more dipping in and out.
As an educator, the thought has crossed my mind that it would be a good exercise for my students to fill several sides with questions that come to their minds because if reading it has an effect on the reader then surely writing such a text will have a profound effect on the writer. The questions are personal because it is the writer who has come up with them and so, this time, I was not put off by the constant references to the references the author makes to things that only people from his background might know about.In the end I decided that everyone should write such a book. Why? Because in the end I believe it gives the writer as well as the reader a different insight into themselves than other forms of writing.
As an educator, the thought has crossed my mind that it would be a good exercise for my students to fill several sides with questions that come to their minds because if reading it has an effect on the reader then surely writing such a text will have a profound effect on the writer. The questions are personal because it is the writer who has come up with them and so, this time, I was not put off by the constant references to the references the author makes to things that only people from his background might know about.In the end I decided that everyone should write such a book. Why? Because in the end I believe it gives the writer as well as the reader a different insight into themselves than other forms of writing.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By skyler
Format:Hardcover
I heard about this book on radio four and expected to be moved but was still surprised at how it worked... Apart from being a bit "american" it helped me to decide on my next life adventure! It pins you down and demands and answer... read it...
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a short, 160 page book. Every one of those pages is covered in text that consists only of questions. Some thought provoking, some memory jogging, some related to earlier questions, but nothing but questions. No answers.
I read 30 pages, keen to see where all this questioning might get to, but eventually I had to flick forward. A dip into a few random pages, including the last, revealed more of the same. Nothing but questions.
Some (the critics quoted on the cover for example) might see this as clever, new and engaging. I saw it like being trapped in a lift with Rain Man suffering from ADHD. You don't want to be rude, but eventually you'd punch his lights out just to get a bit of a rest.
Some may believe the answer to life can be found in the endless tossing of a coin and some obviously think this book is deep and meaningful, life changing even. I thought it merely asked more questions than it answered.
I read 30 pages, keen to see where all this questioning might get to, but eventually I had to flick forward. A dip into a few random pages, including the last, revealed more of the same. Nothing but questions.
Some (the critics quoted on the cover for example) might see this as clever, new and engaging. I saw it like being trapped in a lift with Rain Man suffering from ADHD. You don't want to be rude, but eventually you'd punch his lights out just to get a bit of a rest.
Some may believe the answer to life can be found in the endless tossing of a coin and some obviously think this book is deep and meaningful, life changing even. I thought it merely asked more questions than it answered.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Why, oh why?
You can make any statement into a question, can't you, so what's the point? More to the point, d'you think all those five-star reviewers finished it - and do I care? Read more
Published 8 months ago by Simon G. Barrett
4.0 out of 5 stars
do I like it?
this was so well reviewed that I feel inferior in not quite appreciating it, but I think that it might grow on one. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Margaret June Hall
5.0 out of 5 stars
A work of genius
Should you read this book? Is it a work of genius or simply the ramblings of a mad man?
Rambling Mad Man, you write very well.
Rambling Mad Man, you write very well.
Published 13 months ago by Lewis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bought as gift
Bought book as a gift and have ben told it is great. I flicked through the book myself and found it intriguing and thought provoking and certainly would like to dip in and out of... Read more
Published 17 months ago by tweet
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