Save the Words
By the end of my last “relationship,” we had so few words left for each other. How many other ways could we say, “I’m sorry” or “I unlove you” or…
Features & Reviews
9300 posts
Mourning the Book
I expected to feel a sense of accomplishment when I finished Wallace Stegner's "Angle of Repose," but instead I felt lost, grief-stricken. It was a mixture of sadness for the main character and a fear that I might yet ruin my own life—but mostly I wanted to be back in the middle of that book.
Adam Robinson: The Last Book I Loved, Alaska
I can’t figure out why James Michener gets such short shrift. Is it because he’s too popular? Or because he had help with his painstaking geographical research? The critical disregard…
Diary of a Young Survivor
A playwright’s first novel takes on adolescence and grief in a post-9/11 world
Rebecca Solnit on Writing What Matters
In The Believer, Rebecca Solnit gives some advice I hope to someday learn to follow completely: “Apolitical is a political position, yes, and a dreary one. The choice by a lot…
The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
This week, the book blogs are full of answers. Listen to them. Vonnegut knew why we are all such drama queens (there are charts involved). A thought-provoking take on writing…
The Rumpus Sunday Book Review Supplement
This week, Rumpus books reviewed a collection of poetry by Michael Robins, a novel by Ru Freeman, a book of essays by Kurt Caswell, and the novel Nog by Rudolph…
If Only Nothing Would Grow
It isn’t lyrical, it isn’t fun, it isn’t a spectacle, it doesn’t beg for your attention—Nog honestly considers the absurdity and sadness of everyday life.
The Constitution in Pictures
Over at Cool Tools, Kevin Kelly has posted a review of a graphic adaptation of the US Constitution. Describing the document as “a robust self-correcting legal OS,” but admits that…
Jesmyn Ward Tells It Like It Is
Jesmyn Ward is a long way away from the environment she writes about, yet she is lauded as a southern author with the ability to capture the essence of her…
David Beisly-Guiotto: The Last Book I Loved, Anton Chekhov’s Short Stories
The last book I loved didn’t love me back. Anton Chekhov’s Short Stories (Norton Critical Edition), coolly waltzed and sledded and glanced superciliously right past me, despite my greedy gaze,…
The Bohemian Manifesto
I think I was twelve when I first heard the word Bohemia. I didn’t really know what it meant but it conjured up a mist-drenched, mountainous region where men in…