The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell

Ahh I'm sorry this is so late!!
Wow? Is this an absolutely wonderful book? Do I recommend that everyone read it? Yes?
Alright, so although The Interrogative Mood is not a quality piece of literature, it is most definitely worth reading. When I heard about this novel I was more curious than anything, simply because I had never encountered a novel comprised entirely of questions. I was not expecting the mind-opening experience it provided.
Powell's questions are not organized in any way other than when certain questions branch off into related questions or dig deeper into the original thought. Some questions are completely random and ridiculous, while some are incredibly insightful and make you feel especially alive even before you have attempted to answer them. One of my favorite ridiculous questions is "How do you stand in relation to the potato?" (Powell, 1). Then "Do you like it when people sing "Happy Birthday" to you?" (130). The previous question is one of many that made me feel a little more connected with the rest of society, because if the answer was an obvious "yes", Powell would not have asked the question, which means that I am not the only person who feels awkward when people sing them "Happy Birthday". Then there are the questions that most readers could easily write an entire essay on. A few examples are "Do you realize that people move on steadily, even arguably bravely, unto the end, stunned and more stunned, numbed and more numbed, by what has happened to them and not happened to them?" (28) and "How did we go so wrong? Wasn't there a day on earth when not every sould was possessed of his or her own petty political and personal-identity agenda?" (18). Many questions throughout the novel force the reader to truly think, and also to make confusion their friend: "Is there enough time left? Does it matter that I do not specify for what? Was there ever enough time? Was there once too much? Does the notion of "enough time" actually make any sense? Does it suggest we had things to do and could not do them for reasons other than that we were incompetents? Did we have things to do? Things better done than not? Thus, important things? Are there important things? Are we as a species rolling together the great dungball of the importantly done into itself and making thereby a better world for the dungball rollers to follow us?" (12). I found myself failing to find the answers to many of these questions, and I realized that being aware of questions you can't answer is rewarding in itself.
The Interrogative Mood also contains allusions to literature we have read, thus deepening understanding of the texts it refers to. The introduction is an excerpt from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself", one questions asks "Is a body catching a body coming through the rye regarded a good thing or a bad thing?" (7), and another asks "Would you like to go to Pondicherry?" (57). Powell may or may not have been referring to Life Of Pi with that last question, however that was the only reason I could think of for making a trip to Pondicherry.
Although it is nothing like the literature we deal with in school, the questions that make up The Interrogative Mood cause you to question everything from yourself to your beliefs to your society. I highly recommend this novel.