The Importance of Being Nice
Abject admiration is the worst way to start a review. Isn’t it the blurbist’s job to kiss a writer’s behind, the critic’s to skewer it on the formidable barb of…
Features & Reviews
9295 posts
Wiring the Lush Life
“I just saw a billboard on Houston street, it says ‘where have all the junkies gone?’” Clocking Some Time With Richard Price
Story Time!
Sometimes you just want to come home from your haircut, curl up with Judy, and sit in the last sunshine of the day reading a good short story, a story…
The Purifying Flame
Glen Duncan’s new novel, A Day and a Night and a Day, is an intense and involving story of a man pressed violently against his own limitations.
Skateboarding Writers
McSweeney’s interviews skateboarding pro turned writer, Bret Anthony Johnston, who has written about skateboarding and school for The New York Times. He is now the director of the creative writing…
A Baker’s Dozen of My Feelings about David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest
“Like most North Americans of his generation, Hal tends to know way less about why he feels certain ways about the objects and pursuits he’s devoted to than he does…
The Only Band That Mattered
The author remembers his time with Joe Strummer and reflects on the band’s definitive new book, The Clash.
John Updike: Writers Reflect
The Rumpus asked writers to share their thoughts on the work and legacy of John Updike, who died this week at the age of 76.
Things I’ve Been Silent About
Azar Nafisi‘s first book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, chronicles an underground book club reading Western Classics under the oppressive Islamic government of Tehran (it subsequently became a favorite book-club book…
Terrifying Nixon-Era Children’s Books
Ever since shoving Bush into his helicopter with an expletive and fantasizing about letting go of Cheney’s wheelchair at the top of a long, steep hill, I find I have…
A Review of Deb Olin Unferth’s Vacation
Obsession distorts the lens through which we view the world; things that once seemed unfathomable become terrifically and terrifyingly plausible.
The Rumpus Interview with Andrew Sean Greer
I've heard other novelists say this, which makes me feel like I'm not crazy, that the problem with every novel is finding the key to it, finding the way in.