Welcome to Booklicious, the podcast where we discuss all things book-related. Today, we will be discussing the latest novel from Rebecca Makkai, “I Have Some Questions for You.”
The novel is a murder Mystery set in a prestigious New England boarding school and revolves around the topic of femicide. Makkai brilliantly plays with classic genre writing and current phenomena to ponder social justice issues. Our protagonist is Bodie Kane, a 40-ish podcaster who takes up a temporary teaching job at Granby, the elite boarding school in New Hampshire she herself attended. Bodie becomes wrapped up in the murder case of her late roommate, Thalia Keith, who was killed in 1995.
Bodie and her students dive into the investigation of Thalia’s murder to produce a podcast on the matter. They become convinced that the man who has already spent over 20 years in prison for the deed is innocent and that the Black athletics coach was simply the one who best fit the desired narrative. The person who is repeatedly directly addressed in the novel is a prime suspect who has never been investigated: The music teacher. What did the students back then know, and why didn’t they speak up, helping the man who went to jail and pointing out the factors that seemed dubious? What role did the social climate play, and what responsibility do they carry individually?
The novel also touches on cancel culture and the instrumentalization of victim narratives. Bodie’s husband, Jerome, an artist, gets canceled on Twitter because of a relationship he had with a 21-year-old employee of the gallery he was working with years ago. Bodie and Jerome face the possibility of losing everything over a legal relationship that went sour a long time ago.
Makkai uses her story to ponder framing, narratives, and preconceptions. The novel challenges our preconceptions and underlines the complexity of the real world. Bodie is an imperfect, messy, complicated woman, and that’s the kind of female character we want to meet on the page. “I Have Some Questions for You” is a novel that is unreasonably long for what it has to say, but it tackles highly relevant topics in a clever way, plus it’s super entertaining.
In conclusion, “I Have Some Questions for You” is a must-read for anyone looking for literature that challenges their thinking. The novel is thought-provoking, timely, and engaging. Thank you for tuning in to Booklicious. Join us next time for more exciting book discussions.
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