Monday at 3pm  is the last chance to sign up for The Rumpus Book Club and receive Tao Lin’s new novel, Richard Yates, nearly a month ahead of its release date. Here are four questions, and four answers, about his newest work. …more

Shannon Neale lives in Ypsilanti, MI. Tao Lin lives in Brooklyn, NY. This interview was done on Gmail chat then edited a little by Shannon and Tao. /’s indicate line breaks. …more

One of my favorite books is the story-collection Honored Guest (2004) by Joy Williams. I like it to a degree that its “flaws” seem to function “completely” as contributors to its “tone,” which I like, and which therefore creates a situation for me where “there are no ‘flaws,’ only ‘idiosyncrasies’ that contribute to the ‘tone.’” This contrasts with books where I can easily sense what I like and dislike, for example I like the dialogue and social interactions in Less Than Zero (1985) and American Psycho (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis but dislike the violent parts. When I think about Honored Guest’s “tone” I think it is maybe something like drinking a lot of caffeine while mildly and “calmly” depressed, taking painkillers at night while happy, going outside into sunlight in the morning after not sleeping the night before due to a specific kind of crippling loneliness, or being financially stable while unemployed and living alone in a clean studio apartment with little or no social or familial obligations. …more