“community can bind tighter than blood”

The A.V. Club reviews recent Rumpus Book Club pick Jami Attenberg’s The Middlesteins.

Reviewer Ellen Wernecke says: “The Middlesteins calls back to Richard Ford’s untidy domestic dramas, which spill out into the streets beyond. In this book, the promise of the nuclear family isn’t enough to hold the center, but it appeals to the view that community can bind tighter than blood.”

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Caroline Kangas calls both Seattle and San Francisco home (though she currently resides in the latter). She recently received a mouthful of a liberal arts degree from the University of San Francisco and can be found selling pirate supplies at 826 Valencia or wandering the streets with her diva of a french bulldog, Elle.

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The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers our readers may already know and love. We want to bring new perspectives into the conversation that will make us all look deeper.

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