Features
Poetics, Revelations, and Catastrophes: An Interview with Kamau Brathwaite
Barbados's respected man of letters discusses spiritual and natural forces, history, poetry, ecology, and technology
Bipolar Worlds: An Interview with Chris Stroffolino
The poet, essayist, and singer/songwriter on the American poetic landscape, the Beats, and teaching literature
That Kinko's Guy: An Interview with Paul Orfalea
Kinko's founder Paul Orfalea blasts teaching to tests, vouchers, and educational elitism in America
Chris Bachelder and the Politics of Giving a Damn
Advocating for irony, and trying to rescue a wildly original satire from literary oblivion
Reviews
FICTION
Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman
Gaiman crafts his newest novel, Anansi Boys, with the deftness of a spider weaving a web, luring the reader deeper and deeper into the story until she is simply stuck—helpless against its masterful humor and fun.
Small Island
Andrea Levy
Recipient of last year’s Orange Prize as well as the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, Levy’s novel addresses questions of belonging in the years before, during, and shortly after World War II.
Holy Skirts
René Steinke
Steinke’s Holy Skirts measures a life lived out of time, the ephemeral existence of the fictional World War I era artist Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.
10:01
Lance Olsen
Constructed of 100 two-page connected vignettes, Olsen’s new novel takes on the rapid modern-day consumerist consciousness of movie-goers at the Mall of America’s AMC Theater.
An Outline of the Republic
Siddhartha Deb
Set on a fragile strip of land that connects India to Burma, China, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, Deb’s novel is a subtle exploration of identity and conflict, without a whiff of exoticism.
Haunted
Chuck Palahniuk
While often disturbing and occasionally disgusting, Palahniuk’s latest is not a very scary book, but rather a black satire consisting of 18 narratives by aspiring novelists.
Maps for Lost Lovers
Nadeem Aslam
Aslam develops a set of relationships that reveals the ways in which love—often abetted by religion and nationalism—can divide people instead of bring them together.
NONFICTION
Written on Water
Eileen Chang
Now available in English for the first time, acclaimed novelist Chang’s essays on literature, art, war and urban life in Communist China provide another facet to this fascinating 20th century author.
Spring Forward
The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time
Michael Downing
Downing chronicles the surprisingly checkered and bizarre history of Daylight Saving Time, unveiling in the process the huge economic and cultural forces that depend on it.
H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life
Michel Houellebecq
After reading Houellebecq reading Lovecraft, you come to see not only the affinities, but the degree to which Houellebecq has prepared Lovecraft for us, making him available to us as readers of Houellebecq.
True Story
Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa
Michael Finkel
Ex-New York Times reporter Finkel attempts to redeem his tarnished reputation by interviewing a conman who was caught impersonating him, uncovering both men’s predilection for prevarication.
The Truth Book
Escaping a Childhood of Abuse Among Jehovah’s Witnesses
Joy Castro
In spite of the subtitle and the blood red dust jacket, this is not a sensationalized story. Castro provides a balanced look at the suffering she endured and the truths that were so effectively ignored.
The Middle of Everything
Memoirs of Motherhood
Michelle Herman
Herman rhapsodizes on the wonder of first-time motherhood and grants her daughter Grace her every wish, with dire consequences.
Beyond the Bleep
The Definitive Unauthorized Guide to What the Bleep Do We Know!?
Alexandra Bruce
Taking a middle-ground standpoint, this much welcome guide enables the reader to get a much better grasp on the science the film ultimately fails to adequately describe.
The First Crusade by Thomas Asbridge
and
The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople by Jonathan Phillips
Two books on the medieval religious holy wars create a stark contrast, with the First Crusade a miraculous military success and the Fourth a dismal failure, burdened with debt and division.
POETRY
Decreation
Anne Carson
This collection of poetry, essays, and an opera is propelled by Carson’s flood subjects, knowledge and desire, and reaches after the elusive.
Spinoza Doesn’t Come Here Anymore
Colette Inez
In her ninth collection of poems, Inez manages to redeem shabbiness and loss with wonder and awe.
Wise Fish: Tales in 6/8 Time
Adrian Castro
Castro latest grapples with the multiplicity of language in our postcolonial, postmodern moment.
Escape Velocity
David Breskin
Breskin describes a world in which people are slipping further into poverty, society is becoming more indifferent to its woes, and love is a passive virtue.
cloudlife
Stefanie Marlis
Marlis delivers poetic puzzles and ethical investigations in a varied and fulfilling new volume.
Cosmos & Damian
David Michalski
Through a collage of poetry, prose, interviews, confessions and scholarly thesis, Michalski tells one personal story set against the backdrop of the World Trade Center.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
Planetary: Leaving the 20th Century
Warren Ellis & John Cassaday
In this third volume of an extraordinary series, the dramatic tension grows and the mythos solidifies—while three “mystery archaeologists” continue to try to tidy up the past.
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Rain Taxi Online Edition, Fall 2005 | © Rain Taxi, Inc. 2005