Daphne Merkin’s literary depression
There is a peculiar quality to “A Journey Through Darkness,” Daphne Merkin’s memoir of chronic depression published this week in the Times Magazine. Her intimate account of lifelong struggle with…
Features & Reviews
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What Is Found
In Patrick Somerville’s novel, an expectant father must decide what kind of man he wants to be.
Google, Kindle, and The Library of Babel
Technological innovation seems almost strangely commonplace these days, from say, contact lenses that could layer data directly onto your view of the world to robots fighting far-flung wars to computer…
The Great American Novel in Miniature
Lurking beneath the dazzling political and pop-culture fireworks of Benjamin Taylor’s second novel, The Book of Getting Even, is a vivid tale of American displacement and discovery that could be…
Maddie Oatman: The Last Book I Loved, Divisadero
Last night I dreamed of apocalypse: the room filled with water for a couple of hours, and we were all submerged, floundering around in scuba suits and waiting for the…
The Last Book I Loved: The Log of the S.S. the Mrs. Unguentine by Stanley Crawford
This is one damn weird love story. This is one strange quest. This is one bizarre boat. These are a couple of strange characters we’ve got here. This book feels…
A Novel, A Junta, A Murdered Bishop
A book—that’s an artifact, often long, filled with deep analysis, and pages, and made of paper—by Francisco Goldman undoes an electoral campaign, triggers assassinations, and drags its author into a…
The Future of Publishing Link List
There are a few hundred people currently writing, thinking, yapping, and occasionally (at best) in a position to do something about the future of the book industry. Most, though sadly…
The Rumpus Mini-Interview with Dan Baum
Over the past few days, ex-New Yorker staff writer Dan Baum has received a lot of attention by rehashing the details of his dismissal in 140-character Twitter missives. I spoke…
I Openly Love Ayn Rand, by Elissa Bassist
[A father talking to his son]: “You’re in college now . . . I’m going to have to keep this Ayn Rand book. I’m sorry, but you’re just too old…
#danbaum @The_Rumpus: Reactions
Following Stephen Elliot’s post http://bit.ly/32Mt06, I began covering Dan Baum’s Twitter story relatively late in the game, three days after his first tweet about being fired from The New Yorker.…