Padgett Powell’s forthcoming novel, The Interrogative Mood, is made up entirely of questions. The Complete Review calls it “oddly seductive” and concludes: “Bizzare but entertaining stuff.”

Ron Silliman used the same structure in the 1970s for a shorter work called Sunset Debris. I’ve been trying to think of other novels that aren’t just experimental, like those by Calvino, Markson or Barthelme, but that put such a formal constraint on the author.

The first that comes to mind is George Perec’s A Void, which he wrote without using a single “e.” The book was originally written in French and, just as remarkably if not more, translated into English also without use of an “e.” (The first two sentences: “Incurably insomniac, Anton Vowl turns on a light. According to his watch it’s only 12:20.”)

Allowing for vast differences of intent, there’s also this, which was very popular in the 1980s. Presumably, Powell and Silliman don’t expect people to answer all their questions, though at least one person has gone to such trouble in Silliman’s case.