let the wild rumpus begin!

Then he stopped. His father had explained that the journal was for positive wants, not negative wants. When you wanted something negative, it didn’t count, he said. A want should improve your life while improving the world, even if just a little bit.

So Max began again:

I WANT to get out of here.
I WANT to go to the moon or some other planet.
I WANT to find some unicorn DNA and then grow a bunch of them and teach them to impale Claire’s friends with their horns.

Oh, well. He could erase it later. Just writing it felt good. But now he was sick of writing. He wanted to do something. But what did he want to do? This was the central question of this day and most days.

You know you want to read (what I assume to be) an excerpt from Dave Eggers' Wild Things called Max at Sea.

Source: The New Yorker.

the ship doesn't sink at the end of this one

Shelve those boos and hisses. Put away that skeptical look you reserve for fans of Coldplay (which deserves a post of its own). Sure, Kate and Leo are starring in the film adaptation of the Richard Yates novel, directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead), but Revolutionary Road is no Titanic II.

Then again, upon talking with Mr Joshua Casey this weekend, I realized perhaps Yates' masterpiece of realism is a bit like a sequel to the bloated James Cameron tearjerker. But instead of Jack Dawson sinking into the deep and keeping forever frozen his and Rose's star-crossed, steam-streaking love (hope I didn't ruin that for you), they get married, have a few kids and move to the suburbs only to realize the life they have is not the life they dreamed.

The New Yorker and Atlantic have excellent essays about Yates and Revolutionary Road, but they're full of spoilers, so wait to check them out until you've read the book or seen the film.

With its bleak analysis of the suburbs and a glowing endorsement from Kurt Vonnegut ("The Great Gatsby of my time..."), how could I not fall in love with this book?

Check out a high-quality version of the trailer or just watch the YouTube clip.