Title & author
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
Synopsis
In I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai delves into society’s true crime obsession, but to confront and break down the stereotypes and harmful consequences that the genre tends to play into. In doing so, the story addresses a number of critical topics with purpose, highlighting just how deep and interconnected our society’s structural issues are.
Who should read this book
Fans of Notes on a Silencing and The Incendiaries
What we’re thinking about
Which stories are told and who tells them
Trigger warning(s)
Physical violence, sexual violence, substance abuse, eating disorders, sexism, mental health, racism, fatphobia, murder
In Rebecca Makkai’s latest novel, I Have Some Questions for You (Viking, 2023), Makkai delves into society’s true crime obsession, but to confront and break down the stereotypes and harmful consequences that the genre tends to play into. In doing so, the story addresses a number of critical topics—from the #MeToo movement to a corrupt criminal “justice” system to inequitable academia—with purpose, highlighting just how deep and interconnected our society’s structural issues are.
Bodie Kane, the protagonist of I Have Some Questions for You, is a podcaster, one half of a show that focuses on the real stories of famous women in Hollywood. She’s also a graduate of an east coast boarding school associated with its share of problems—including sexual assault, racism, and the murder of Thalia, Bodie’s old roommate and classmate. Returning to teach a podcasting course, Bodie can’t help but look at the school through both her teenage eyes and adult critical lens. “In the darkened classroom, the memory started to roil, to trouble me. We were so quick to spread lurid gossip, but so void of concern. Perhaps because we believed we were adults” (Makkai, 51).
And this is the part that Makkai leans into: When we’re young, especially depending on our privilege, we are encouraged to excuse. We might dismiss wrongdoings against us because we have been told they’re not wrong. And, especially for those who don’t have the privilege of ignorance, that might mean experiencing or seeing something happen and knowing it’s wrong, but not having the words to express why or how we feel about it. “We were, all of us, casting a sharp eye back on the men who’d hired us, mentored us, pulled us into coat closets,” Bodie says of the #MeToo movement (65). So when Bodie returns to Granby to teach a course, she’s not just critical of the school, but of herself, of the way she stayed—and still stays—silent in face of her own and others’ treatment, whether assault, racism, inequities…she’s by no means perfect. It’s here when Makkai starts to expand Bodie’s gaze across multiple societal issues.
“What’s as perfect as a girl stopped dead, midformation? Girl as blank slate. Girl as reflection of your desires, unmarred by her own. Girl as sacrifice to the idea of girl. Girl as a series of childhood photographs, all marked with the aura of girl who will die young…” (7). Everyone from Bodie’s peers to wannabe influencers have sensationalized Thalia’s death, minimized it. They’ve focused on how it was done, who could have done it, why they did it. They don’t consider Thalia herself, nor the systemic factors at play, such as whose stories we pay attention to (the deaths of white, young women) and whose guilt and punishment we push for (largely men of color)—particularly punishment in forms of incarceration.
Our society’s obsession with true crime—whether consumed through podcasts, TV, or on social media—comes as no surprise. We are drawn to the sensational. But sensationalizing crime of any sort is both rooted in and furthers systemic inequities in our society. I Have Some Questions for You covers a lot, but it has to. Assault, #MeToo, incarceration, race and privilege, criminal injustice, and even academia—all of these conversations are intertwined. Makkai doesn’t attempt to give answers (which some may be disappointed by), but she does make an argument for questioning, for challenging what we think we know. And she doesn’t give into the true crime hype either, but leaves readers on a cliff, no neat bow tied around the piece. Instead, she poses a challenge: “Maybe I’m coming for you. Maybe I’ve been coming for you all along,” Bodie thinks near the end of the novel, addressing an old teacher (429). We have to push for a better justice system, because unless there is true, deep seated change, abuse, harassment…it’s going to keep happening. The “you” might be different, but there will always be a “you.”
“What’s as perfect as a girl stopped dead, midformation?”
Join in
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Did I Have Some Questions for You make you rethink true crime? If so, how?
The book covers a lot. Which conversations—whether the critiques of academia, our “justice” system, #MeToo, etc.—stood out to you the most? Why?
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