A Year in Rumpus Book Reviews
A look back at the books we’ve reviewed in 2018!
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Posts Tagged: Denis Johnson
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Katie Ford
Katie Ford discusses her new collection, IF YOU HAVE TO GO.
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What’s Between the Covers: A Conversation with Naben Ruthnum
Naben Ruthnum discusses CURRY: EATING, READING, AND RACE and FIND YOU IN THE DARK.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #131: Lisa Wells
“I always feel like I’m starting over. I don’t know how I ever wrote a poem. I really do have that feeling.”
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The Delusion of Objectivity: Talking with Leslie Jamison
Leslie Jamison discusses The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, understanding that every text is incomplete, and whether motherhood has changed her writing.
...moreNotable Los Angeles: 1/15–1/21
Literary events and readings in and around L.A. this week!
...moreNotable Twin Cities: 1/14–1/20
Literary events and readings in and around the Twin Cities this week!
...moreNotable Chicago: 1/12–1/18
Literary events and readings in and around Chicago this week!
...moreNotable San Francisco: 1/10–1/16
Literary events and readings happening in and around the Bay Area this week!
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Less Brilliant but More Profound: Denis Johnson’s The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
[I]n Johnson’s whole protean oeuvre, more than any pair of books, Jesus’ Son and The Largesse of the Sea Maiden are like binary stars, locked in orbit, distinct but inseparable, each throwing its light upon the other.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #102: Max Winter
Winter’s writing seems effortless. It’s sad, enthralling, at times hilarious stuff.
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A Love Letter to Fuckhead
If you’re judging your characters, you’re not doing it right. I’ll always be grateful to [Denis] Johnson for teaching me that.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview #80: Jon Raymond
Jon Raymond is one of Portland’s finest wordsmiths. His writing spans TV, film, short story, novel, art criticism, and a hefty array of magazine work. His new novel, Freebird, is the story of a Californian Jewish family entangled in clashing politics, unspoken histories, and personal dissolve. The Singers are Holocaust survivor Sam, his contemptuous children, […]
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What to Read When You Are Surrounded by Spies
Here, in one handy list, are a few of our favorite spy novels. Watch your back!
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Albums of Our Lives: Mister Loveless’s Grow Up
These golden years, precious and ephemeral, are falling in pieces at your feet everywhere you turn, and part of you thinks, let them. You almost wish, despite yourself, for this all to just go faster.
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The Rumpus Interview with Ranbir Singh Sidhu
Ranbir Singh Sidhu discusses his new novel, Deep Singh Blue, growing up in rural California, and the privileged, problematic world of publishing.
...moreThe Literary Value of Hip-Hop
At Electric Literature, Mensah Demary argues that there should be greater appreciation of hip-hop as a powerful storytelling medium, positing Nas as a master of literary narrative: If presented with a choice, I’d rather discuss classic hip-hop albums than short story collections: the former evokes warmth, my need to consecrate my life to a certain […]
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Jay Deshpande
I try to make sure no one’s around when I talk out loud to books.
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Idra Novey
Swati Khurana talks with novelist and translator Idra Novey about the challenges and joys of translation, the idiosyncrasies of language, the inextricable reception of women’s writing and women’s bodies, and much more.
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The Rumpus Interview with Victor LaValle
Victor LaValle discusses his latest book, The Ballad of Black Tom, patience, H.P. Lovecraft, and reinvention.
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Sound Takes: Something More Than Free
“My day will come if it takes a lifetime,” sings Isbell, with the sunny assuredness to make us believe him.
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The Rumpus Interview with Lincoln Michel
Lincoln Michel talks about his debut short story collection, Upright Beasts, his interest in monsters, and what sources of culture outside of literature inspire him.
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The Rumpus Interview with Megan Kruse
Author Megan Kruse talks about her debut novel, Call Me Home, queer characters in rural places, sibling relationships, and how the music of Lucinda Williams inspires her.
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The Rumpus Interview with Kate Walbert
Author Kate Walbert talks about her new novel, The Sunken Cathedral, about the way cities change over time, and her approach to using footnotes in fiction.
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Patrick O’Neil
Patrick O’Neil talks about his debut memoir Gun Needle Spoon, being big in France, the drug/recovery genre, and writing through trauma.
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The Rumpus Interview with Maggie Nelson
Author Maggie Nelson talks about matrophobia, “sodomitical maternity,” breaking down categories between genres of writing, and her new book, The Argonauts.
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The Rumpus Interview with Christian Kiefer
Writer, musician, and poet Christian Kiefer discusses his literary influences, the “beautiful, beat up, and weird town” that is Reno, and writing from the perspective of beasts in his new novel The Animals.
...moreRe-creations, Adaptations, and “Rip-offs”
Jesus’ Son is often considered the seminal work of Denis Johnson’s career. But recently Johnson called the book a “rip-off” of Isaac Babel’s early 20th century work, Red Cavalry. For The Millions, Nathan Scott McNamara contests Johnson’s assertion, arguing that “rip-off” is not the proper word to describe the influence of Red Cavalry on the author’s story collection: In Jesus’ Son, the […]
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The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson
Matthew Tanner reviews The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson today in Rumpus Books.
...moreThe Artful Sentence of Denis Johnson
Sentence construction. That’s all a writer does anyhow, right? Not all sentences are made with great care and hold sentiments like this one: There is something artful and sad in juxtaposing the certainty that something is wrong with the uncertainty over what that thing is. Tin House explores the artistic genius tucked away in the sentences crafted […]
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