Heather Partington
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
In the Saturday Essay, Lisa Borders describes moving to a small community in southern New Jersey at thirteen. It’s the sort of place where everyone knows the difference between “good” and “bad” families. This dynamic reminds Borders of Steven Avery, the…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks brings us an illustrated retrospective of the works of Franklin “Boobs & Butt” Barber. Then, in the Saturday Rumpus Review of Todd Haynes’s movie Carol, Sean Donovan considers how this new film fits into Haynes’s other works that focus on…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, in the Saturday Essay, Alana Hauser remembers the evil spirit from David Lynch’s eerie TV drama, Twin Peaks. The “parasitic” spirit, named Bob, is “a frightening reflection on the pervasive reality of male violence.” Hauser looks to the shocking ruthlessness of…
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My Life as a Mermaid by Jen Grow
Heather Partington reviews Jen Grow’s new collection My Life as a Mermaid.
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Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed edited by Meghan Daum
Daum’s collection is at its best when it’s being the most transparent and unapologetic.
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The Sunday Rumpus Book Review: From Here by Jen Michalski
Many authors’ stories blend together across a collection; they struggle to convey a unique voice in each piece. Not so with Jen Michalski’s From Here. Though her characters share common experiences—dashed hopes, disappointments, misunderstanding by loved ones—the voice in each…
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The Sunday Rumpus Reviews: Fridays at Enrico’s by Don Carpenter and Inside Madeleine by Paula Bomer
Fridays at Enrico’s (Counterpoint) Don’t write about writing. That gets said a lot. But like any absolute about what not to do, it’s only true until someone does it well. Such is the case with Don Carpenter’s Fridays at Enrico’s,…
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Beside Myself by Ashley Farmer
There are many reasons that an author would want to put a book–an actual physical object–into a reader’s hands, rather than just communicating data. Some books rebuff the notion that fiction is the same when it’s replicated digitally, downloaded, or…
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The Sunday Rumpus Review: Women in Bed by Jessica Keener
What sends us to our beds? Desire, sure. Sex. But also sickness. Sleep. Loneliness and healing. Jessica Keener’s Women in Bed is a collection of nine stories about women at all stages of life and wanting.
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The Sunday Rumpus Book Review: If I’d Known You Were Coming by Kate Milliken
What we do to each other in moments breeds a kind of emotional genealogy that can’t be undone. The characters in Kate Milliken’s debut collection, If I’d Known You Were Coming, are bound to the emotional aftermath of their family…