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From Stephen Elliott
George Saunders’ (he of a recent Rumpus Book Club convo) newish short story collection masterpiece Tenth of December has garnered an impressive selection of praise from some of the biggest of literary guns. And the hits keep coming.
Aaron Thier over at The Nation finally adds his two cents to the growing pile of critical change, and not surprisingly, his thoughts are mighty positive.
...moreThe Still Point of The Turning World, Rumpus Book Club author Emily Rapp’s memoir about her Tay-Sachs inflicted son Ronan, is reviewed in The New York Times Book Review this week.
Sarah Manguso, herself the author most recently of the death-inspired memoir The Guardians, says this about Rapp’s book:
...moreThe best of these ["grief memoirs"] aren’t just sad stories; they’re attempts to write one’s way out of the crisis.
Caleb Crain over at The Nation digs in deep to James Lasdun’s new memoir, Give Me Everything You Have, the seemingly terrifying story of his “persecution on the internet by a clever, mentally unbalanced person.”
The cyber-harassment (a wildly tame description of Lasdun’s struggle) was the work of a former student of Lasdun’s, who tormented him over six years with increasingly delusional and threatening emails.
...moreOver at the New York Times “Draft” blog, Benjamin Nugent, author of Good Kids, breaks down the romantic notion that locking yourself away in the “primeval hush of the Midwest” is a certified boon to your writing.
Instead, Nugent discusses the “Victorian foil” of monomania and the way that too much alone time can actually be detrimental to the creative process:
...moreWriting a book consists largely of avoiding distractions.