Features & Reviews
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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 a satisfying ending. The Book Bench points out that CNN…
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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 Wurlitzer.
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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.
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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 it can be hard to understand. But he recommends the…
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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 home. Ward, who is currently entering her second year as…
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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 pinch of my page-turning fingers.
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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 long coats and women in peasant skirts sang the praises…
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A Disobedient Girl
A first novel about a Sri Lankan servant girl brings to life a vivid world of class differences, and restores dignity to characters who are often shoved to the sidelines.
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Is Indie Still Alive?
What’s hipper than indie culture? Discussing whether or not indie culture still exists, of course. In his essay for The Millions, “T.V. Party Tonight!,” Patrick Brown wonders about the reoccurring dichotomy between mainstream and alternative. In contrast to publishing consultant…
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The Adderall Diaries
The Adderall Diaries, by Rumpus editor Stephen Elliott, goes on sale today. Why not purchase from Powell’s, or your local bookstore? Check out a new interview with Elliott up at Faster Times. Also out today, what was Elliott listening to…
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An Inside Passage
Kurt Caswell’s award-winning essays channel Phillip Lopate and David Foster Wallace, while exploring the plight of a “mountain man” stuck in a paved-over world.
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J.A. Tyler: The Last Book I Loved, Scary, No Scary
The last great book I read was the very recent Scary, No Scary by Zachary Schomburg, released from Black Ocean Press in August. I was a big fan of the previous collection from Schomburg, The Man Suit, and was hoping…