If you want to read something that you don't quite understand, where you talk about the forest indefinitely, getting out of it, living there, getting into it, the people who live there, their "professions", their "laws" and so on and then again and again, not even from a new angle, but just over and over again - then this is a short booklet for you.

The cover of this book immediately draws the eye, the story synopsis is intriguing, the actual execution of the story, bewildering. This was a tough read for me. The story is in there and it's a fairly unique premise of exiles trying to sell everyone on the benefits of being exiles, but the writing style was such that I had to reread many sections to figure out what I was reading. Like the old saying....it's not you, it's me....many readers love the stories that they crawl into and block out the world so to understand and keep up with the author's imagination...just not me.

I wanted this to be "The Village' in book form and with more depth. This, instead, is a rambling and meandering book that bored me to tears.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book was...different. I don't know if I can say that I actually liked it or disliked it; I just didn't get it. It's very all over the place, very stream of consciousness, very rambling and often confusing.

Reading The Rumphulus is like falling into a river, and on the way downstream you find yourself sometimes meandering along, and at other times pulled forward by a slipstream, and at still other times caught in a repeating whirlpool of language and scene. The prose is repetitive, almost incantatory. Reading The Rumphulus was a singular experience, but if I were to place it in literary context I'd say the novel has a stream-of-consciousness feeling the reminded me of Gertrude Stein, plus an intellectual and formal structure reminiscent of Steven Dixon, plus a bleak fatalism that reminds me of Kafka. Thematically the novel is about men who have completely lost their usefulness in society, and know that about themselves...and honestly I found this aspect of the novel extremely refreshing, as I can't recall reading another novel by a man where men were so completely put in their place. Thanks you Joseph G. Peterson and University of Iowa Press for the opportunity to read this unique novel.

Erudite without being elusive. Humorous without being over-the-top. Always literary, always enjoyable. I greatly enjoyed this satiric and smart book. Highly recommended!

I'm sorry but I just don't get it. I tried to find some deep metaphorical message within the book but no matter how hard I tried, I could not fathom why I was reading this and what it was trying to say. Firstly the writing style is hard. It's repetitive to the extreme. I actually thought it might be more enjoyable to count how many times the author used the word rebuked. The language is over the top and in my opinion, unnecessary. As for the story, well again I just didn't get it. From the blurb you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a story about a colony of people sent away. Some dystopian element and look at class and society. Instead it seems to be a man telling another man how much he loves the woods. The whole thing where he "escapes" is pointless. This is possibly the worst book I've read this year. Worse than the Wall and that was bad. The author has a wonderful vocal and language but as a book, it's missing the main thing, the story. I will not be reading any more by this author

I wish I had more to say about this because the cover and description had me interested. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is I found the style the book is written in to be too heavy on the rambling side. I've read other books or stories with a similar writing style which were much more forgiving. I understand why this book is like that but for an average everyday reader I feel that it's uninviting. When I look at a book I question whether it's something that's going to sell and I honestly don't feel that here. I have nothing to comment on the story.