past editions

With Vol. 4, No. 1 (Issue #13, Winter 1999), RAIN TAXI launched its online edition with all original material.

On this page, you can browse to the table of contents of all online editions.

SPRING 2006

Brent Cunningham, Mary Burger, Sparrow, and more...

INTERVIEWS

We Live in a Country with Maybe the Most Delicious Looking Flag of Any Nation: An Interview with Sparrow
Interviewed by Thomas Devaney
Sparrow may be one of the most touching and elusive writers in America.

Time-Stopping, Points of Friction, and Other Narrative Events: An Interview with Mary Burger
Interviewed by Kevin Kilroy
Mary Burger discusses Sonny, New Narrative, and time.

REVIEWS: POETRY

Hoops
Major Jackson
Jackson’s formal talents and lyrically spun narratives dazzle in a book that covers everything from lay-ups to po-biz. Reviewed by Lynnell Edwards

Hostile
Heather Nagami
An anomaly among first books by an Asian American poet, Hostile struggles with the very roots of unfashionable “identity work.” Reviewed by Kenny Tanemura

Bird & Forest
Brent Cunningham
Cunningham’s first collection of poems transforms itself from declarative orations to stunningly self-conscious meditations and then turns again. Reviewed by Amanda Nadelberg

The Healing Spirit of Haiku
David Rosen and Joel Weishaus
This book of reflections and haiku enhances the physical  reality of the haiku experience. Reviewed by Andrew Redhead

REVIEWS: FICTION

Gate of the Sun
Elias Khoury
translated by Humphrey Davies
A Palestinian resistance fighter of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war tells stories to his dying comrade, in an effort to talk him back to life in this poetic and poignant reworking of 1001 Nights. Reviewed by Laird Hunt

Things in the Night
Mati Unt
Unt’s book does not document absurdities so much as embody them; peeking out from behind these absurdities is an ongoing critique of modern society. Reviewed by Scott Esposito

Fan-Tan
Marlon Brando & Donald Cammell
Edited by David Thomson
Follow the exciting adventures of a man named Annie, Hong Kong prisoner and pirate. Reviewed by Sam Howie

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

A Little History of the World
E.H. Gombrich
Gombrich retells for young readers the great stories of history, from the beginnings of time and civilization to the dawning age of technology. Reviewed by Kelly Everding

Rousseau’s Dog: Two Great Thinkers at War in the Age of Enlightenment
David Edmonds & John Eidinow
This is a story of two great thinkers who became close friends only to become bitter enemies. Reviewed by Allan Vorda

Neurosphere: The Convergence of Evolution, Group Mind, and the Internet
Donald P. Dulchinos
Could the World Wide Web be the next step in the evolution of consciousness? Reviewed by Nicole Duclos

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Barbara Ehrenreich
Ehrenreich sets out to prove how hard it is to find a job in George W. Bush’s America. Reviewed by Robert J. Nebel

An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World
Pankaj Mishra
The story of the Buddha continues to be relevant for a society constantly dealing with consumerism, militarism, and nihilism. Reviewed by Rasoul Sorkhabi

REVIEWS: GRAPHIC NOVELS

Why are You Doing This
Jason
In his first full-color work, Jason follows a cat-headed young man named Alex as he tries to discover who has framed him for the murder of his best friend. Reviewed by Yves Reisender

Rain Taxi Online Edition, Spring 2006 | © Rain Taxi, Inc. 2006

FALL 2005

Kamau Brathwaite, Chris Stroffolino, Chris Bachelder, and more...

FEATURES

Poetics, Revelations, and Catastrophes: An Interview with Kamau Brathwaite
Interviewed by Joyelle McSweeney
Barbados's respected man of letters discusses spiritual and natural forces, history, poetry, ecology, and technology.

Bipolar Worlds: An Interview with Chris Stroffolino
Interviewed by Aryanil Mukherjee
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
Interviewed by Robert J. Nebel
Kinko's founder Paul Orfalea blasts teaching to tests, vouchers, and educational elitism in America.

Chris Bachelder and the Politics of Giving a Damn
Essay by Justin Taylor
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. Reviewed by Kelly Everding

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. Reviewed by Christopher J. Lee

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. Reviewed by Garin Cycholl

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. Reviewed by Scott Esposito

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. Reviewed by Niranjana Iyer

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 eighteen narratives by aspiring novelists. Reviewed by Kevin Dole

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. Reviewed by Scott Esposito

REVIEWS: 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. Reviewed by Lucas Klein

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. Reviewed by Carrie Mercer

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. Reviewed by Joel Turnipseed

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. Reviewed by Elaine Margolin

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. Reviewed by Anne F. McCoy

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. Reviewed by Clifford Garstang

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. Reviewed by Jaye Beldo

The First Crusade
Thomas Asbridge
& The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople
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. Reviewed by Summer Block

REVIEWS: POETRY

Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera
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. Reviewed by Courtney Queeney

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. Reviewed by Daniela Gioseffi

Wise Fish: Tales in 6/8 Time
Adrian Castro
Castro latest grapples with the multiplicity of language in our postcolonial, postmodern moment. Reviewed by Shannon Gibney

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. Reviewed by Ross O'Hara

cloudlife
Stefanie Marlis
Marlis delivers poetic puzzles and ethical investigations in a varied and fulfilling new volume. Reviewed by Eric Elshtain

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. Reviewed by David Madgalene

REVIEWS: GRAPHIC NOVELS

Planetary: Leaving the 20th Century
Warren Ellis and 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. Reviewed by Woody Evans

Rain Taxi Online Edition, Fall 2005 | © Rain Taxi, Inc. 2005

SPRING 2005

William Corbett, John Tranter, John Cale, Pier Paolo Pasolini and more...

INTERVIEWS

The Romance of Life and Art: An Interview with William Corbett
Interviewed by Thomas Devaney
The multi-talented poet, art critic, and publisher talks about the challenges of editing James Schuyler's letters, looking at art, and his own poetry.

A Bit of New York in Australia: An Interview with John Tranter
Interviewed by Leonard Schwartz
Australian poet John Tranter discusses his connection with the New York School of poets, forged over a distance of 6,000 miles.

FEATURES

John Cale in Words and Music
Essay by Steven Lee Beeber
A new biography and album face off to tell the true story of The Velvet Underground's avant-garde genius.

Postcard from Viterbo: Pasolini's Tower
Essay by Linda Lappin
A ruined tower served as a refuge for the writer Pier Paolo Pasolini in the years before his death.

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

Campo Santo
W. G. Sebald
Truth was an overarching issue for the late Sebald, though his attempts to arrive at it were never what one might call conclusive. Reviewed by Eric J. Iannelli

Under Albany
Ron Silliman
In a multi-layered text that resists genre labeling, Silliman excavates the personal circumstances that underlie an early poetic work. Reviewed by Mark Tursi

Invisible Cities: A Metaphorical Complex Adaptive System
Chloé E. Atreya
The bridges between Complex Adaptive Systems and Italo Calvino's intriguing, imaginal travelogue are described here in ways the analytically challenged among us can understand. Reviewed by Jay Beldo

Einstein Defiant: Genius versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution
Edmund Blair Bolles
This accessible scientific biography explores the great physicist's refusal to accept the implications of quantum mechanics, a theory he himself helped create. Reviewed by James Ervin

REVIEWS: FICTION

Europe Central
& Expelled from Eden
William T. Vollmann
Two new works by the prolific Vollmann are considered and confronted by an advocate in a Vollmannesque frame of mind. Considered by Justin Taylor

Gilead
Marilynne Robinson
Gilead is very much a Midwestern book, evoking a regional temperament that Easterners, urbanites, and agnostics might see in others but never feel first-hand. Reviewed by Ted Pelton

Superfolks
Robert Mayer
This thirty-year old novel arguably anticipated the whole revisionist superhero trend, but more importantly succeeds as a work of fiction. Reviewed by Rudi Dornemann

The Phryne Fisher Mysteries
Kerry Greenwood
Australian author Kerry Greenwood's delicate, determined, and devilishly clever flapper sleuth is finding new fans across the globe. Reviewed by Kris Lawson

REVIEWS: POETRY

Discrete Categories Forced Into Coupling
Kathleen Fraser
Throughout this carefully structured volume, Fraser brings disparate modes of form and emotion into a unified intelligence wherein opposites collide. Reviewed by Laynie Browne

Almost Paradise: New and Selected Poems and Translations
Sam Hamill
Hamill possesses the tender voice of a compassionate soul, and the vivid imagery that he presents reveals a refreshing generosity of spirit. Reviewed by Christopher Luna

The Lichtenberg Figures
Ben Lerner
Aptly named after the branching patterns that sometimes form after lightning strikes, Lerner's first book of poems crackles with paradoxically intelligent and illogical connotations. Reviewed by Cindra Halm

Oxo
Pierre Alferi
French poet Alferi deftly explores a rigid form, "a grunge idea...almost as good as compacting the trash," that allows for wild comparisons and abrupt shifts of focus. Reviewed by Jefferson Hansen

Puerta del Sol
Francisco Aragón
This collection gives an intimate look at life in contemporary Spain, as well as a convincing depiction of one person's attempts to navigate loss and violence. Reviewed by Alexandra van de Kamp

REVIEWS: GRAPHIC NOVELS

Gemma Bovery
Posy Simmonds
In Gemma Bovery, British author Posy Simmonds offers not only a contemporary send-up of an age-old theme, but a fresh take on the graphic novel as well. Reviewed by Eric Lorberer

Mister O
Lewis Trondheim
Tragic? Comic? Tragicomic? You feel for him, Mister O, even though he's a psycho. Reviewed by Karen Donovan

Rain Taxi Online Edition, Spring 2005 | © Rain Taxi, Inc. 2005

FALL 2004

An American lit-mag in Paris, David Foster Wallace, and more...

FEATURES

Postcard from Paris: Frank
Essay by Linda Lappin
Frank, the longest-running Anglophone literary magazine in Paris, is a journal of contemporary art, literature, and culture offering a vibrant mix of perspectives from the Americas, Europe, and Africa. It keeps afloat through the ingenuity of its publisher, a man who came to Paris with a dream.

REVIEWS: FICTION

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Susanna Clarke
It all begins with a simple question—"Why was there no more magic done in England?"—and a fantastic and witty history explodes with a Big Bang. Reviewed by Kelly Everding

Checkpoint
Nicholson Baker
The publication of Baker's latest novel generated as much controversy and official nervousness as might have been expected from a novel by a prominent author about two men discussing the potential assassination of George W. Bush. Reviewed by Andrew Palmer

Oblivion
David Foster Wallace
One of the great things about Oblivion, the new collection of stories from David Foster Wallace, is that it absolutely would not get a passing grade in your typical writing workshop. Reviewed by Scott Bryan Wilson

Ilium
Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons's first foray into science fiction since his epic Hyperion saga, Ilium stretches across over four thousand years in an astounding display of writing and ideas, not only about the potential future, but the potential past. Reviewed by Allan Vorda

The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories
edited by Ben Marcus
An excellent gathering of contemporary American short fiction guaranteed to wake the reader from whatever stupor they happen to be in. Reviewed by Laird Hunt

REVIEWS: GRAPHIC NOVELS

Transmetropolitan: One More Time
Warren Ellis, Darick Robertson, Rodney Ramos, et al.
A comic about a gonzo journalist in a grim but not quite dystopian future,Transmetropolitan has managed to be unique in a field where uniqueness is more often aspired to than achieved. Reviewed by Rudi Dornemann

Planetes: Volumes 1-3
Makoto Yukimura
Set seventy years in the future, this manga series explores an Earth that is neither utopic or apocalyptic, but rather muddles through with short-term solutions to long-term problems—sans wacky aliens, giant robots, or beautiful android maids Reviewed by Robert Boyd

REVIEWS: MIXED GENRE

Haze: Essays, Poems, Prose
Mark Wallace
In this collection of essays and poems, Wallace presents an inquisitive view of organizational and individual elements of poetry and expression. Reviewed by Karl Kraus

REVIEWS: POETRY

The Unsubscriber
Bill Knott
By shtick, trick, or lick, Knott elicits illumination by shaking up our complacency in his newest full-length collection of poems. Reviewed by Cindra Halm

Alaskaphrenia
Christine Hume
In her second book, Hume plumbs the cold depths of human consciousness, never letting her readers forget their mortality. Reviewed by Sun Yung Shin

Dog Island and Other Florida Poems
Laurence Donovan
This posthumously published volume by a poet and printmaker offers a sustained meditation on an earthly paradise. Reviewed by Robert Zaller

What Is This Thing Called Love?
Kim Addonizio
Despite all of the drugs, booze, and sex in Addonizio's fourth book of poems, the collection becomes a fascinating sort of love poem for the speaker's daughter. Reviewed by Mike Chasar

War and Peace
edited by Leslie Scalapino
The second of Scalapino's anti-war anthologies attempts to turn toward the wreckage, taking as its impetus the living in war of Tolstoy's novel. Reviewed by Michael Cross

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews
Edited by Kenneth Goldsmith
Could Andy Warhol have been as superficial as he appeared? Both admirers and detractors of the controversial artist will find material to support their positions in this hefty collection of interviews. Reviewed by Christopher Luna

The Bells in Their Silence: Travels Through Germany
Michael Gorra
Modeling his book after Goethe's Italian Travels, Gorra attempts to explore the deep contradictions of Germany, wondering if travel narrative is still possible after Buchenwald. Reviewed by Leland de la Durantaye

Emancipating Pragmatism
Michael Magee
Magee links the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph W. Ellison, Frank O'Hara, and Amiri Baraka to the avowed classic pragmatists John Dewey and William James. Reviewed by Jefferson Hanson

The Mommy Myth
Susan J. Douglas and Meredith W. Michaels
The Mommy Myth provides a powerful antidote to every "mom" who professes to want do to nothing more in life than tend to her brood. Reviewed by Sarah Buttenwieser

Rain Taxi Online Edition, Fall 2004 | © Rain Taxi, Inc. 2004

WINTER 2003/2004

Susan Howe, Dürer, bilingual writers, and more...

REVIEWS: FICTION

The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases
edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Mark Roberts
Don your mask and wash your hands: You might catch a disease by reading this review! Reviewed by Justin Maxwell

Mirage
Bandula Chandraratna
In this generous novel, Chandraratna's characters search for a semblance of happiness under conditions not of their choosing. Reviewed by Christopher J. Lee

The Spider World Series
Colin Wilson
In this harsh study of evolution by the author of The Outsider, conflicts of intelligence versus might and entitlement versus inheritance predominate as the novels ask what determines a species' survival and what kind of survival it might be. Reviewed by Kris Lawson

Tomb for 500,000 Soldiers
& Eden, Eden, Eden
Pierre Guyotat
Warning: we are about to enter the most unabashedly depraved realm in the history of the printed word—the world of Pierre Guyotat. Reviewed by Rod Smith

Ground Works: Avant-Garde For Thee
edited by Christian Bök
This anthology of innovative Canadian fiction appears at the very moment when such work has begun to "receive unprecedented international acclaim." Reviewed by Nicholas Birns

See Through
Nelly Reifler
The spare stories in Reifler's startling debut demand that the reader piece the whole together. Reviewed by Neil Kozlowicz

Tent of Miracles
Jorge Amado
Amado explores the engrossing world of Salvador de Bahía, Brazil and its juxtapositions of class, ethnicity, and religion in this 1969 gem. Reviewed by Alicia L. Conroy

Elizabeth Costello
J. M. Coetzee
The newest Nobel Prize winner's latest work takes the form of a series of public lectures and the stories that surround them. Reviewed by Michael Sayeau

Deep Purple
Mayra Montero
Although there is something troubling about a pompous male's sexual exploits, Montero's point is a melancholy one: Every phase in life comes to an end. Reviewed by Kristin Thiel

A Place So Foreign And Eight More
Cory Doctorow
In this deft and minimalist collection of science fiction tales, the characters have an insatiable desire for forbidden knowledge which takes the shape of bizarro technology. Reviewed by Doug Pond

REVIEWS: MIXED GENRE

Dürer in the Window: Reflections on Art
Barbara Guest
This book not only collects Guest's writings on art from the '50s to the present, but it is a beautiful object in itself, designed by artist Richard Tuttle. Reviewed by Corinne Robins

Stories From the City of God: Sketches and Chronicles of Rome, 1950-1966
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Neo-realist Italian film maker, poet, novelist, and Marxist theorist, Pasolini is an icon of Italian culture, which he captures deftly in these stories and sketches. Reviewed by Tom Sanfilip

Phoebe 2002: An Essay In Verse
Jeffery Conway, Lynn Crosbie, and David Trinidad
Three poets create a mock epic of All About Eve, the 1950 film about celebrity, ambition, and betrayal in the theater world. Reviewed by Steven Moore

REVIEWS: POETRY

María Sabina: Selections
Edited by Jerome Rothenberg
The ever-astute Rothenberg here offers an important new selection of writings by shaman/poet María Sabina. Reviewed by Hank Lazer

The Midnight
Susan Howe
This book will appeal to collectors—those with a thirst for juxtaposition, who revel in connections among words and things. Reviewed by Michelle Mitchell-Foust

Chances Are Few
Lorenzo Thomas
An expanded edition of Thomas's first major book of poetry showcases his plainly spoken and unpretentious observations. Reviewed by Christopher Luna

Trilogy
Pentti Saarikoski
Known for a time as The Blond Beatle of the North, Saarikoski is a major Finnish poet whose landmark Trilogy is now translated by Anselm Hollo. Reviewed by Gregory Farnum

Deer Head Nation
K. Silem Mohammad
This book of poems wants to be America, although it may not particularly like America . . . Reviewed by Aaron Kunin

Problem Pictures
Spencer Selby
Welcome to verbo-visual poetry: 100 pages of alarming configurations of ink by a master of the form. Reviewed by W. B. Keckler

Book of Haikus
Jack Kerouac
Be very quiet: You might hear the sound of one Beat clapping. Reviewed by Keith Abbott

Poets of World War II
edited by Harvey Shapiro
Editor Harvey Shapiro—himself a veteran of 35 combat missions as a B-17 tail gunner-sets a solemn tone in this anthology from The Library of America. Reviewed by Jeffrey Alfier

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

War is a Racket
Smedley Butler
Butler, the most decorated Marine ever to leave a battlefield, wrote this controversial book in 1935, and it's still relevant today. Reviewed by Joel Turnipseed

A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates
Blake Bailey
Richard Yates was once the exemplar of the "writer's writer"—hailed by his peers but largely unread by the people he was so committed to writing about: ordinary Americans. Reviewed by Kathleen Andersen

Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader
edited by John Morthland
Bangs's pyrotechnic, adrenaline-fueled diatribes are rife with jarring cultural references, unpopular and unexpected opinions, and infectious passion for the music which consumed him. Reviewed by Adam Hall

Getting Personal: Selected Writings
Phillip Lopate
This collection of essays by one of the form's acknowledged masters traces the arc of Lopate's personal and professional lives. Reviewed by Ricky Opaterny

Lives in Translation: Bilingual Writers on Identity and Creativity
Edited by Isabelle de Courtivron
Love affairs with languages and their emotional histories abound as these writers contemplate writing in a second tongue. Reviewed by Karl Krause

The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire
Khassan Baiev with Ruth and Nicholas Daniloff
Baiev administered to the wounded during the Russo-Chechen wars of the '90s, and for his trouble was branded a traitor by both sides. This is his story. Reviewed by Scott Esposito

Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel Of Thomas
Elaine Pagels
In seeking solace after her son's near fatal illness, Pagels asks the question that drives this book: "What is it about Christian tradition that we love—and what is it that we cannot love?" Reviewed by H. E. Everding

Mexifornia: A State of Becoming
Victor Davis Hanson
Hanson, conservative military historian and long-time California farmer, takes a crack at charting a middle course on the thorny problem of illegal Mexican immigration. Reviewed by Anis Shivani

Rain Taxi Online Edition, Winter 2003/2004 | © Rain Taxi, Inc. 2003/2004