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Mike Tyson doesn’t seem full of it, but sometimes it seems full of him. Each persona gets taken to an extreme. Think Gollum in Lord of the Rings, if he moved up a few weight-classes; or Hamlet on protein shakes. …more

Brett Easton Ellis offers social observations, morbid humor, and compounding degrees of separation and decadence. If his story cycle The Informers were a Choose Your Own Adventure book, here are some outcomes:

- You take your disenfranchised son to Hawaii, lust his girl, and cock-block him at dinner (your treat). Your son goes off to self-medicate. You slither up to your crush and fail at sugar-daddery.

- You go rafting while your expensive Egyptian lizards get fed poisoned cockroaches. You cheat and get cheated on.

- You crash your car. You die. Your friend removes the joint from your pocket before the cops come and smokes it.

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Two recent anthologies bring a literary touch to stories of the macabre. …more

With echoes of 9/11, the protagonist of Jim Knipfel’s novel flees the ubiquitous surveillance of a not-so-futuristic government. …more

“A nigga don’t come out of jail and get his toes done,” ODB is quoted in a new biography, as he pointed out the earth-tones and the feng-shui waterfall in a manicure parlor. “How are the kids gonna feel about this?” …more

Eminem’s memoir, The Way I Am, borrows its title from his 2000 single about the over-the-top trappings of fame, in which he vents: “I’m racin’, I’m pacin’, I stand and I sit/And I’m thankful for every fan that I get/But I can’t take a shit in the bathroom/Without someone standin’ by it.” …more