I Have Some Questions for You

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (2023) There was some crucial point, almost like a tipping point, I guess—and I wish I’d taken notes, written down right when it hit me, somewhere past the middle, so later on—anyway, it was the point where I really had the realization of how easy it would be to be blamed for a crime you didn’t commit. Of course, for non-white people, in the US, this realization might come faster, or always be present—but at this point in the book it hit me. Kind of a chilling moment. And that’s just part of what this book did, and is busy doing, but there’s much, much more to it. The setup is, this woman, Bodie, 40 or so, has a successful podcast, and goes back to the boarding school she attended as a teen, to teach a mini-course on podcasting—and one of her students chooses to investigate the circumstances of the murder of a young woman—one of Bodie’s acquaintances—back when she was in school. The man convicted of the crime, a Black man who’d worked there in the gym, might have possibly been wrongly convicted, and over time there has been a growing movement to try to prove his innocence. Bodie get drawn into that and starts having serious doubts about the outcome of the murder investigation, and she is also forced to examine her own complicity. She also reconnects with people from the past and is encouraged to reassess them. Also, in the meantime, her ex-husband is being accused of past misconduct—and she gets into trouble by association. There is a lot going on at once—part of it being just a good, old-fashioned, can’t-stop-reading mystery. There’s even room for romance and humor—quite an entertaining book, but all the fun doesn’t diminish the serious subject matter and the disturbing issues—all of it connected. Plenty of opportunity to think about racism and the justice system, problems with academia for women, violence towards women in general. Tons of characters that are somehow easy to keep track of. It's a long book—but lots of short chapters—and it really moves along.

4.15.25