I found myself continuously engaged while reading this short novel and was taken in by the original and creative story and writing style. That being said some of the devices the author used to convey the confusion in Josephine's mindset made me confused as a reader and were at times off putting.

It's hard to pinpoint what this book reminded me of, because it isn't confined to just one genre. I suppose it would be classified as speculative fiction, but I also felt like it was the story of a woman struggling in her desire to have a family.
Fun is not the appropriate adjective here, but certainly there are parts that were fun and funny and clever and sarcastic. I flew through this book, because it is short and also because it almost reads like poetry in its line breaks and chapter breaks.
I highly recommend!

So, I was underwhelmed but this is not my type of book. Was it well written? Yes, some very lyrical turns of phrases. But it left me pretty cold and disinterested and maybe that was the point? Hard to say. I was curious where it was going but I wasn't terribly interested once it got there. Would I have read this in AP english class and enjoyed my teacher's commentary and discussion on it? Probably. But you know, now I read for my own enjoyment and this doesn't qualify for me. But maybe it's yours.

This is a little book that asks a lot of big questions- about life, about power, about marriage and about trust among others. It reads like a Twilight Zone episode and I couldn't go to sleep until I had finished it! Josephine gets a new job in a windowless building working on something called The Database. She is making entries of names and numbers but is not told what the connection is. She is also not allowed to discuss her work with anyone. She and her husband are struggling to make ends meet and living in sublets that should probably be condemned. The picture this novel paints is somewhere between an M C Escher drawing and a Dali painting-it's surreal and the line between beginnings and endings is very hard to distinguish. There is also a lot of wordplay in this noirish and fun read.

The length of this short book seemed a bit stretched, as if it should have been a novella instead, or even a long short story. The plot is very linear, and there are really only two characters — Josephine, the central one, and Joseph, her husband, who we don't really get to know well. The story is Kafkaesque without being a pastiche, and it's set in what could very well be the present day in New York, Chicago, or another big American city.

I enjoyed it much more at the beginning. I could identify with Josephine, and I liked her and her husband. I was intrigued by the small mysteries that arose. Then the story lagged in the middle, and I began to worry nothing new would happen. The sort-of surprise ending unfolded quickly and clearly, and it's fun and clever (and even sad). This book not terribly deep or brilliant, as some of the reviews would lead you to think, but it is entertaining.

Dreamy and melancholy.

Absolutely loved this book, an easy 5 stars.

It was a real page turner, but I wouldn't say it was actually "good." I kept reading because it's an easy read (beach read material) and because I wanted to know how it ended... and then the next thing I knew I was on page 145 (of 180) and it just sort of ended! Josephine figures it out, she's fired, they run away. I wanted more of a resolution - what's the gender of the person with no face? why is his/her breath so bad? What is the database doing? Who operates it? When did it come about? And more questions about what the book is actually trying to accomplish, but I can't even invest that much time in thinking it through.

Easy to read, entertaining, but nothing that'll leave an imprint on me.

Can't quite figure out what this was. I enjoyed the beginning, very Twilight Zone to me. But, I'm not into existentialism or magical realism, or whatever this is. There are definitely clever parts and very appealing writing, but just not enough to do it for me.