The Blurb Archives - Page 2 of 2

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.

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A Remembrance of Frank McCourt

"Sit back. I'm going to tell you a story," Frank said in his brogue, looking into the distance like a Homerian epic-teller. "Don't you ever dare steal it."

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Somalian Refugee Writers Show the Way

Dadaab is not an oasis. There is no water. In July, food rations are expected to be cut back to 1000 calories a day. The camps are short 38,000 latrines. Every year only twenty students from the entire camp escape to university, the only legitimate way out.

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A Faithful Grope in the Dark

Are marketing departments running the major publishing houses? Do editors and agents know what they're doing? Are small presses the future of literature? Is everything a crapshoot? What's a first-time novelist to do?

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Was This Review Helpful? Amazon and the Search for an Unassailable Masterpiece

One customer review of "The Catcher in the Rye" warns readers that it will make you “want to kill yourself." Another calls Holden Caulfield a “whiney, immature, angst ridden teenager who need[s] a smack in the head.”

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Beyond the Pleasure Principle: One Woman’s Reading History

When I started reading as a child, it was an immoderate, late-night indulgence of sweaty palmed, pupil-dilating gluttony. Books were a drug, and civilized society was the pusher. And I got really really high.

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Welcome to Rumpus Books

At The Rumpus, we believe that a healthy literary culture is one which embraces writing of all kinds, by authors of all stripes – young and old, established and emerging, traditional and experimental, writing from the margins or from (or about) the heart of mainstream culture, published by “major” houses or by smaller presses.

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Is the Internet Ruining Our Lives?

We’re distracted, our attention is shot, we are under surveillance, and we don’t care! We like being linked and friended by strangers who may or may not be who they say they are.

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A Challenge to Publishers: Just Say No to Gonzo

We’d like to introduce you to The Blurb, the Rumpus Books blog. Check this space for frequent posts about the state of our writing culture, our literary community, and the…

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