A Year in Reading: Jonathan Lethem

December 3, 2009 | 2

coverPadgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood is a supreme literary stunt: a short “novel” composed only of questions, each of which seems to implicate the reader in a narrative conspiracy as serious and absurd as his or her own life. Ultimately, Powell’s little book can be seen word-machine designed to induce unprecedented states of interior monologue, or narrative drug.

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is the author of seven novels, including, most recently, Chronic City.