I Have Some Questions For You

 

I enjoyed this novel SO MUCH. My interest was initially piqued by some Facebook discussion of the fact that one of the characters in I Have Some Questions For You shares a name with a prominent character in Antonia Forest's Marlow series: the murder victim is called Thalia Keith. Now, Thalia Keith is not a common name, and frankly I don't believe Rebecca Makkai when she claims that it's a complete coincidence; however, it seems that some characters were named by winners of a fundraising auction, so I'm guessing that's how Tim Keith weaseled her way into a starring role in this book.

However, I Have Some Questions For You, with or without Thalia Keith, is a brilliantly satisfying read. It skilfully combines dual timelines -- the present, in which alumna Bodie Kane returns to Granby school to take a podcasting course; and the past, in which she remembers the murder of a classmate in the 1990s. There is a lot going on in this novel, quite apart from the murder mystery. Makkai interweaves issues of cancel culture, sexual and racial politics, class, memory (not just for the facts of the fateful night or the months that led up to it, but the past students' memories of their own identities -- was Bodie a cool, even 'scary' Goth, or an awkward misfit? Was golden girl Beth Docherty effortlessly popular, or mired in misery? Was music teacher Denny Bloch (the 'you' of the title) an inspiring teacher, or a sexual abuser, or worse?)

I galloped through this thick book at top speed; luckily, I had a busy week, or I would have just sat down and devoured it from beginning to end. Makkai resists the temptation for easy solutions to the moral and ethical questions she poses here, and her prose is gorgeous. I hate to compare novels (at least in terms of quality), but I couldn't help contrasting Makkai's book with another adult novel I read recently (a very successful one) and the difference is chalk and cheese. I Have Some Questions For You is lots of fun, but it's also grown-up literature.