America
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The Rumpus Interview with Boris Fishman
Boris Fishman discusses his debut novel, A Replacement Life, Russia, the “immigrant novel,” Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, and Vladimir Putin.
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Road Tripping for Inspiration
“We’re doing this because we’re buds and we’re starting new books. We’ve always talked our ideas through with each other; it’s always helped. Through these conversations, we’ve grown as writers together.” Josh Weil and Mike Harvkey have been longtime friends.…
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Looking at America from Far Away
Since I arrived, two years ago, I’ve grown more interested in works about American expats, especially those in which the characters are not quite comfortable in their settings. I wanted to see what this literature said about the ways in…
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No-Look
The first man to make me feel like I could groove in America was Magic Johnson. Not just be here, not just make it through a school day without crying, but groove: exist with such assurance that I could look…
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Beyond Americana
These are memories, packaged, dusted, shrink-wrapped, and worn. How strange are they for the man to whom they belonged?
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The Little Tolls and Pitfalls of Modern American Racism
Abigail Fisher, a 22-year old white girl, a graduate of LSU, just pleaded to the Supreme court that the University of Texas rejected her four years ago because of affirmative action. UT says they’d have rejected her no matter her…
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Songs of Our Lives: Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”
It’s Christmas morning, 2001 and I’m fifteen. I unwrap a record player, but am more immediately captivated by the record collection that comes with it.
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Cities and You
The Atlantic recently ran an article entitled “Why Americans Love Chain Stores: A Psychological Perspective,” and not only does it break down our metropolitan American tendencies, but it explains them in terms of our psychological issues. Our ideals about American…
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Final Dispatch from the Great Mistakes Tour
The third leg of comic Kyle Kinane’s Great Mistakes Tour has been officially documented. This part of Isaac and Kyle’s foray into the expansive American landscape includes Sioux Falls and Omaha, more Taco Bell and one sentimental, applause-filled coda to…
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Gay Marriage for America
Love and the pursuit of happiness were the impetus for Andrew Sullivan’s move from the UK to America. He wrote a beautiful essay for Newsweek on the benefits of gay marriage for straight America. With our “inalienable human rights” being…
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Percival Everett on Franzen, Sexism and The Great American Novel
“I do not believe that apparent authoritative literary voices of validation would ever make such a grand claim about a novel written by a woman. I say this because I believe there are many novels by women that are about…
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Postcards from the Edge
“Big American Trip addresses our insecurities as artists, lovers, and citizens who lack the ability to understand one another, regardless of which language we speak.”