Pitt on Parker
The Rumpus assigned “dueling reviews” to the authors of two new short story collections. It didn’t really work out so well.
Reviews
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Pedal Pusher
A popular cycling blog spawns a humorous book about mental and physical survival on big city streets.
The Drunk Sonnets
Like most winning drunken acts, The Drunk Sonnets is comprised of extremes. I came away from each poem thinking it was either the best damn thing I’d read in years…
From Russia with Love
Elif Batuman offers a rogue’s gallery of Russian writers, scholars, and literary characters—the only oddball missing is herself.
Who’s the Narcissist?
Emily Gould may be the queen of oversharing—but you’re the one reading this review of her book.
The Black Minutes
A crime novel set in a fictional Mexican city delves into the unsolved murders of two decades.
A Rich, Prickly Sense of Expansion
In A Meteorologist in the Promised Land, Becka Mara McKay reminds us that every language is a unique translation of a combination of desire and thought, both of which have…
From Old Notebooks
“As the writer wrestles with his book and his family, we reexamine our thoughts about the writer. It’s a performance in which writer and reader have equal billing.”
Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving
“Amnesia had long streaming hair bleached to a dazzling white and was always clad in black. Flying through the air she seemed like a Valkyrie warrior plunging down from Valhalla.”
I Know Why the Caged Bear Sings
A collection of stories from a Romanian-American writer, nominated for a Northern California Book Award, juxtaposes stories from the old country and the new.
Disinclined to Mislead Anyone
Lantz forces us again and again to reexamine the way we see through such juxtaposition of facts as well as through the voices of characters who search for and experience…