The Interrogative Mood

August 3, 2009
Powell (Mrs. Hollinsworth's Men
) is in playfully provocative, top form in this slender book fashioned solely as a series of questions beginning with his limpid first: “Are your emotions pure?” and ending with his prickly last: “Are you leaving now? Would you? Would you mind?” Thoughtful, cajoling and absurdist, Powell's random non sequiturs are not without their method, sounding some tenderly recurring themes, such as a middle-aged ruefulness for simpler times, a longing for more elegant forms in clothes, tools, cars and looks and a tenderness for elephants, dogs and children. At moments the questions become self-revelatory, as if the narrator is interviewing for a partner or friend (“Would you believe me if I tell you that I am a little fragile, psychologically speaking...?”), while also challenging the reader with pointed questions regarding ethical gravitas: “Are you bothered by your cowardice?” Hilarity, irony, and sheer perverseness vie to question essentially what we know and how what we know makes us what we are.