A Mashup of Devils
These days one doesn’t have to look strictly to horror movies to find devils.
Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
Vertigo in the Stacks
“When I first went to work in Harvard’s Widener Library, I immediately made my first mistake: I tried to read the books. I quickly came to know the compulsive vertigo…
Farzana Versey Remembers her Walkman
“I do not have an iPod. The Walkman is 30 now. I resisted it, as I have resisted several new innovations. I still have an old cassette player. I like…
Evening Cocktail
Summer Thursdays are good for barbecues and movies. Take it from me. The New York Times on the recent upscaling of the humble hamburger. Plus recipes. Have some cheese with…
We Need Studs Terkel
At the bookstore I work at, we recently got in a HUGE shipment of remaindered books. Books by Michael Ondaatje, Virginia Woolf, Alain de Botton, all of them brand-new and…
William T. Vollmann Made Me A San Franciscan
One of the more anticipated summer novels of the season is also probably one of the longest, most disturbing and most intimidating: Imperial, William T. Vollman’s mammoth exploration of the…
Somalian Refugee Writers Show the Way
Dadaab is not an oasis. There is no water. In July, food rations are expected to be cut back to 1000 calories a day. The camps are short 38,000 latrines. Every year only twenty students from the entire camp escape to university, the only legitimate way out.
What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going
Five short stories modeled on the works of the old masters make up this smart, witty first collection
Movies Briefly, The Proposal (2009)
The title The Proposal has two meanings; it refers to the improvised marriage between shrew boss Margaret (Sandra Bullock) and exasperated assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) devised to stave off her…
Movies Briefly, Suspiria (1977)
It boggles my mind that Dario Argento directed a movie called Deep Red and it is not this picture. How is that possible? How could any movie not set entirely…
The Dead Sea Scrolls of John Dillinger
The tale of a long-lost account of one of America’s most notorious criminals, a struggling ad man, and the contributing editor at Playboy who brought the story to light.