July 2012
4 posts
Naked Characterization!
Before William Giraldi turned Alix Ohlin’s novel Inside into a small sensation by giving it such an underservedly vicious review, I reviewed Alix’s novel for the Rumpus.
At some point in Inside, Alix Ohlin’s elegant second novel, you will probably notice, as I did toward the end, that her characters have a lot of sex. I mean a LOT of sex.
Holy cow do they have a lot of sex.
Read...
The Pulitzer Prize Debacle: A Confession
By Sean Carman
Believe me, I was as surprised as anyone to find myself sandwiched between New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Joyce Dehli, Vice President for News at Lee Enterprises, at one end of a long line of battered wooden tables, under a stained glass window depicting Lady Liberty floating on a cloud.
How had I been chosen to serve on the Pulitzer Prize Board? Beats me. Like a...
On Afternoon Thunderstorms
One of my favorite things about growing up in Laramie, Wyoming was the afternoon thunderstorms that rolled through in the summers. Every day, it seemed, after a morning and early afternoon of sunshine, gathering clouds would darken the land, pour down rain, and fill the sky with bolts of light and thunder. Then the skies would clear, as quickly as the clouds had formed, and when you went back out...
The Thinking Man's Rape Joke
Lindy West’s piece on Gawker is the best thing I read about Daniel Tosh’s insensitive rape joke at the Laugh Factory two Fridays ago. (Tosh either responded to a heckler by joking she should be raped, or said to a woman in the audience who asked him not to talk about rape, “You sound like you got raped by, like, five guys or something.” For purposes of the ensuing internet...
