Dept. of Speculation

Dept. of Speculation is a work of literary fiction by American novelist Jenny Offill. The novel was originally published in January 2014 by Alfred A. Knopf and was named one of the year’s 10 best books by the New York Times. Written in Offill’s customary fragmented prose, Dept. of Speculation reinvents the familiar story of marital infidelity into an examination of life’s meaning and purpose. Offill combines elements of philosophy, myth, science, and poetry to enact her interrogative first-person narrator’s quest for understanding and actualization. The novel explores themes including the Fragmentation of Identity in Marriage, the Search for Meaning in Everyday Life, and the Conflict Between Motherhood and Personal Aspirations.

This guide refers to the 2014 First Vintage Contemporaries paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source text and guide feature depictions of cursing, sexual content, mental illness, suicidal ideation, death by suicide, pregnancy loss, and death.

Plot Summary

The novel is narrated from the first-person point of view of the unnamed protagonist. The narrator lives alone in Brooklyn, New York, where she works as a fact checker. She tries to balance her claustrophobia in the city with her enjoyment of urban life and, as an aspiring writer, starts to pursue an artistic practice. She grows close with her friend the philosopher. When they’re together, they exchange ideas, visit each other’s apartments, and go out drinking and partying. One night, the philosopher suggests that the narrator meet his coworker and friend who’s a soundscape artist.

The narrator and the soundscape artist start to see one another. They share an artistic sensibility and a love of travel. While they’re away together on one trip, the new couple gets engaged and then married. (At this point in the novel, the narrator begins to refer to her husband using second-person pronouns, thus employing the first-person direct address.)

The narrator and her husband start a life together in New York and move into a new apartment. The husband gets a new job, and the narrator gets pregnant. The couple is distraught when the narrator loses her first pregnancy. Sometime thereafter, she becomes pregnant again and carries a healthy baby girl to term.

The narrator stays at home with the baby full-time. She loves her daughter but finds motherhood exhausting. The baby has colic and is difficult to settle. The narrator spends most of her days wandering around the city trying to get the baby to stop crying. In the meantime, she wonders if she’ll ever fulfill her dreams of being an artist. Her days feel devoid of purpose, and she grows increasingly lonely. Her sister moves overseas, and the philosopher begins working as a traveling lecturer.

Despite the narrator’s frustrations with family and domestic life, she experiences moments of happiness with her husband and daughter. They dance in the kitchen, play music, make dinner, and read together. Then one month, the house gets infested with lice. The bugs get into all of their belongings, and they struggle to eradicate them. Soon they must move out of their apartment.

Shortly after the daughter turns five, the narrator notices a change in her husband. The couple goes out for coffee, and the husband asks her about her happiest memory. The narrator is confused by the question but realizes a month later that her husband must be having an affair. (At this point in the narrative, the narrator begins to refer to herself as “the wife” and to the husband as “the husband,” using the third-person point of view instead of the first-person.)

The wife confronts the husband and confirms that he is seeing someone else. Hurt, she starts devoting all her energy to her daughter and her teaching job at the university. She also begins to read books on philosophy and adultery and intermittently ghostwrites a scientist’s book on the space program. She incorporates passages from these texts into her account as she tries to make sense of her now fraught marriage.

Desperate for a break from the husband, the wife temporarily goes to see her sister overseas. The sisters spend time together discussing the wife’s situation. While away, the wife writes the husband an intimate letter like the ones they used to exchange when they first fell in love.

Back in New York, the wife struggles to reacclimate to married life and to accept the husband’s request for a separation. One day she agrees to meet with him and his lover—referred to as “the girl”—but the girl refuses to come downstairs to talk to the wife when she arrives. The wife is frustrated but doesn’t push the matter.

Finally, one day the wife’s sister suggests that the wife, the husband, and their daughter leave New York and stay in her now-empty house in Pennsylvania. The wife accepts her sister’s offer, and the family temporarily relocates.

Over the following months, the wife and husband begin to work through their personal and relational conflicts. The narrator starts writing again for the first time. The husband starts devoting more time to his family. Their daughter gradually orients to country life. Being in the natural world grants all the family members a sense of ease and perspective. (At this point, the narrative shifts out of the third-person point of view and back into the first-person point of view for the final chapter.)

Winter comes to Pennsylvania. The narrator and her husband walk their daughter to the bus stop in the snow. Watching her family together, the narrator deems the idyllic scene art.