While in bed, I would read one of his stories and then watch an X-Files episode, back and forth, a kind of ping-ponging. Two questions I asked myself while reading the stories were 1) Are the characters sad and stuck and stagnant? and 2) Am I?

The collection made me laugh aloud and the characters made me cringe several times, too. Her responsibilities, though dreary and minor, were all-consuming, and a nonfatal stab would seemed like just the thing to get people off her back for a while.Īt a literary event that took place inside a masonic lodge at a cemetery, Jim Gavin read an excerpt from his book, and the next night I started and finished Middle Men, his collection of short stories that are mostly set in Los Angeles. Part of her was hoping to get mugged–a major trauma would simplify everything. Would you like a Rumpus recap on this week’s victories and defeats? I agree that Wendy is a Feminist Superhero. Let’s start with Roxane Gay’s Let’s Recap What Happened in Texas and When Twitter Does What Journalism Can’t. And there I was, last night, watching a YouTube livefeed of a state Senate filibuster, something I never thought I would do.