{"id":82771,"date":"2015-02-17T11:53:29","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T16:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=82771"},"modified":"2015-02-17T12:09:41","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T17:09:41","slug":"intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/","title":{"rendered":"Intermittent Explosive Disorder: An Interview with Matt Sumell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"mattsumell\"<\/a>

Matt Sumell<\/p><\/div>\n

In Spring 2012, <\/em>The Paris Review published Matt Sumell\u2019s short story \u201cToast<\/a>,\u201d in which the narrator, Alby, humiliates his girlfriend so creatively, and so often, that she ends the relationship. \u201cOver the next few years,\u201d Alby says in a typical passage, \u201cI changed from a mostly passive prick to a mostly aggressive one, sexing a lot of girls and I\u2019m pretty sure contracting HPV in my throat.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cToast\u201d appears in <\/em>Making Nice<\/a>, Sumell\u2019s first book, a collection of linked stories all told from Alby\u2019s perspective. He\u2019s a thirty-year-old having a hell of a time navigating the world since his mother died from cancer. Sumell\u2019s stories are pugnacious, figuratively and literally. In \u201cPunching Jackie,\u201d Alby spars with his sister; in \u201cOK,\u201d he pushes his one-legged father over the side of a boat. Even when he isn\u2019t taking anyone to task, the stories are full of fighting words: bitterness at the world, anger with fate, and misunderstanding of circumstance. Alby is lost. His outlets for self-discovery and definition are few and far between. <\/em>Making Nice is hilarious in its prose, but painful in its nakedness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sumell and I met up to talk fighting, writing, and being named Matt on a freezing January afternoon. We ended up in Chelsea, at Barcade, a bar lined with arcade games where the tater tots are shaped like Tetris pieces. When we walked through the door, Sumell took a quick survey of the room and jetted from my side, making a beeline directly to <\/em>Punch Out!! Nothing could seem more apropos. <\/em><\/p>\n

You just returned from a trip to Manila with your father, Albert, to whom your book is dedicated. Your main character is also named Alby\u2014which doesn\u2019t strike me as a coincidence. What\u2019s your relationship with your dad?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, we\u2019re going straight there, are we? Well, the funny thing about my father having that name\u2014I\u2019m the first born, but my great-grandfather\u2019s name is Alby, and my grandfather\u2019s name is Alby, and my father\u2019s name is Albert. <\/p>\n

But you\u2019re Matt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m Matt. But my younger brother\u2019s name is Albert. I got fucking skipped, man. I think when I was a baby, I looked like Uncle Fester\u2014I was fat and bald and ugly\u2014and they skipped me. I have no idea why. My middle name is Albert, though.<\/p>\n

My relationship with my dad is great. He\u2019s a sweet guy, he means well\u2014he\u2019s old school, and he really did lose his leg on a Harley when he was eighteen years old, and there may be some arrested development there. He\u2019s always been generous, and he\u2019s important to me. I love him a lot, so I wanted to dedicate this book to him. Obviously, the book has a lot to do with my mother dying, but it\u2019s really just about suffering and grieving, and I know my father suffered with that really hard. I wanted him to know how much I appreciated that.<\/p>\n

When you were creating a father character, was it hard to keep your real father and the father you\u2019d constructed separate in any way? Could you detach your own father from the narrative?<\/strong><\/p>\n

People are always asking, How autobiographical is this? That\u2019s such a difficult question. When I was in graduate school, the idea was that you use what hurts. <\/em>I had a funny voice that seemed to be working, and at one point, Geoffrey Wolff\u2014who, I love his work, and he\u2019s an amazing teacher\u2014said, You\u2019ve got great aim, you\u2019ve just got to figure out some targets that are worth blowing away. I\u2019d been writing these ridiculous stories about nail-care salons, and it was almost like stand-up. It wasn\u2019t story-worthy.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Stanley Elkin\u2019s idea of writing being revenge against your bullies. They don\u2019t have to be actual<\/em> bullies. Sometimes, in the book, I do <\/em>go after actual bullies of mine\u2014but there are bullies like cancer and death. So, I started using what hurt, and seeing my dad suffer\u2014that hurt. I would use that, but then you fictionalize. You exaggerate. People often wonder if I\u2019m Alby. And the answer is no. Alby does things that I wouldn\u2019t do. Alby is more impulsive, and I allow him to make those bad choices because bad choices make for good stories.<\/p>\n

Making Nice<\/em> has been described as a \u201cgut-punch,\u201d and in \u201cLittle Things,\u201d you write, \u201cIt feels good to be punched in the face, to punch someone in the face.\u201d What\u2019s your own experience with fighting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ugh. I recently self-diagnosed myself with having intermittent explosive disorder. Sometimes there\u2019s an inordinate amount of aggression that comes out of me. The book is called Making Nice <\/em>because, in a way, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been good at that. I think I\u2019m a very nice person, but I lose it. I get extremely frustrated, and I\u2019m very protective of my sister\u2014I\u2019ve gotten into a few fights because of her.<\/p>\n

Somebody figured out I\u2019ve been in some fights mostly when I was younger, in clubs. Clubs are obnoxious, there are a lot of people with bad taste in there, and there are a lot of people who are drinking and on drugs. It\u2019s also hot, and I feel like heat has a direct link to aggression. I\u2019ve been in some fights. I\u2019m not very good at them. I often lose, even though I have a larger-than-normal amount of hatred in my heart. I was never the guy to walk away, but I\u2019m trying to get better at that. I have gotten better at that.<\/p>\n

Does it come with age or perspective, maybe?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have this theory that guys go through a second puberty between twenty-eight and thirty-two.<\/p>\n

\"9781627790932\"<\/a>You write about that in the book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a friend who can\u2019t even watch a Kay Jewelers commercial because he has an emotional reaction to it, and that sucks. Men are hyperaggressive, and then all of a sudden\u2014I think Thom Jones wrote really well about this in The Pugilist at Rest<\/em>\u2014you reach a point where you\u2019re like, What is wrong with me? Why was I so angry and so violent? Why did I want to inflict injury on other people? Maybe we\u2019re just a little late on developing that empathy for other people. That might be primitive wiring that we have. It might sound ridiculous on the page.<\/p>\n

Have you used writing as a funneling mechanism for any of those feelings, or for coping?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Someone asked me if writing was \u201ccathartic,\u201d and if I wrote about cancer and death as a way of dealing with my mother\u2019s death. Did it help? No, I don\u2019t think so. One of the things I think I share with Alby is that I suck at grieving, and I suck at loss, and I don\u2019t think I get better at that. I think writing helps me process things on some level, but I don\u2019t think it makes things hurt any less. I have a lot of sadness about what happened with my mother, obviously.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the first thing you remember doing after your mother died?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I probably ate some of her pain pills. That\u2019s one of the more autobiographical parts of the book\u2014I was with her when she died. Everyone else had kind of decamped, because they just didn\u2019t believe it was going to happen.<\/p>\n

Before you went to UC Irvine for your M.F.A., you worked at Home Depot, you worked as a traveling marketer, and you almost joined the Navy. During those periods, did you care at all about finding some kind of identity?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not at all. I didn\u2019t care what I was. I was in a lot of pain back then\u2014I still am\u2014and when you\u2019re suffering like that, your time horizon shrinks, so you\u2019re not thinking about the long-term future, so you\u2019re just thinking about, How do I get by in the next hour, the next minute. You\u2019re making a lot of impulsive decisions. You get reckless. It wasn\u2019t about my identity, it was like, Why do I want to punch that fucking Ph.D. student in the face because he had an earring and he was dancing weird? I was just in a weird spot, so it wasn\u2019t like, What am I doing?<\/p>\n

How do you deal with identifying as a writer now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In LA, people are like, What do you do? and I\u2019m like, I write. <\/em>They\u2019ll go, Me too! And I\u2019m like, Oh yeah, what do you write? and they\u2019ll always say, Screenplays. <\/em>There\u2019s a modifier on that\u2014\u201cscreen.\u201d Not that there\u2019s not an art<\/em> to that, but what you and I do is very different. I can\u2019t write a screenplay, and that\u2019s hard, but it\u2019s a different medium, and for some reason I want to put distance between myself and them. So that\u2019s the identity thing that I struggle with there. Then again, there are times people ask you what you do and you mumble it, and you know people are going to ask you, What do you write? So you just want to be like, I freelance. I teach. So they won\u2019t ask any more questions. You don\u2019t want to explain all the time.<\/p>\n

Did you ever aspire to be something else?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a time I wanted to be a fireman. After I got the M.F.A. from Irvine and was working at a gas dock and swinging sledgehammers and making no money, and you realize, This is no way to make a living. One of my great friends wrote an amazing book and made no money. That\u2019s like five years of work, and if you break that down per hour and that\u2019s, like, one cent an hour. It\u2019s horrifying, and you start to have all that self-doubt. You start thinking about other ways to survive. Being a fireman\u2014another thing I share with Alby is that I want to help.<\/p>\n

You mention self-doubt, which writers have in spades\u2014what do you think constitutes affirmation for a writer? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to lie\u2014getting published in The Paris Review<\/em>, Electric Literature<\/em>, and NOON <\/em>all felt great. I\u2019m tremendously proud of those things, and I do this lame thing where I frame the covers of the journals because I\u2019m really proud of the hard work. But is that why I do it? No, but it helps me to keep doing it.<\/p>\n

Affirmation for me is writing a story that I don\u2019t hate. Writing is really hard, and I\u2019m really hard on myself. I\u2019m working on this in therapy. People ask me, What are you working on? And I say, I\u2019m working on my mental health. I have this aggression, and my aggression also applies to myself. I\u2019m really hard on myself, and my own work, so when I finally\u2014after all of this self-hate\u2014write something that I think is decent, that\u2019s important. I guess that\u2019s affirmation for me.<\/p>\n

Meredith Turits is the senior culture editor at <\/em>Bustle, where she runs the Books vertical, and the fiction editor at <\/em>The Brooklyn Quarterly.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Spring 2012, The Paris Review published Matt Sumell\u2019s short story \u201cToast,\u201d in which the narrator, Alby, humiliates his girlfriend so creatively, and so often, that she ends the relationship. \u201cOver the next few years,\u201d Alby says in a typical passage, \u201cI changed from a mostly passive prick to a mostly aggressive one, sexing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":798,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[907],"tags":[17069,4864,14367,71,1132,217,17068,12612,6439,747,12643,14904],"class_list":["post-82771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-work","tag-aggression","tag-autobiography","tag-families","tag-fiction","tag-interviews","tag-los-angeles","tag-making-nice","tag-masculinity","tag-matt-sumell","tag-novels","tag-screenplays","tag-siblings"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMatt Sumell on Writing, Aggression, and \u201cMaking Nice\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The author discusses his first book, the \u201csecond puberty\u201d that men go through, and the mendacity of \u201cautobiographical fiction.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Intermittent Explosive Disorder: An Interview with Matt Sumell by Meredith Turits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February 17, 2015 \u2013 In Spring 2012, The Paris Review published Matt Sumell\u2019s short story \u201cToast,\u201d in which the narrator, Alby, humiliates his girlfriend so creatively, and so\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-17T16:53:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-17T17:09:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1163\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meredith Turits\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Meredith Turits\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Meredith Turits\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7d545abe07be74827d8cd08bb6c25bbf\"},\"headline\":\"Intermittent Explosive Disorder: An Interview with Matt Sumell\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-17T16:53:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-17T17:09:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/\"},\"wordCount\":1938,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"aggression\",\"Autobiography\",\"families\",\"fiction\",\"interviews\",\"Los Angeles\",\"Making Nice\",\"masculinity\",\"Matt Sumell\",\"novels\",\"Screenplays\",\"siblings\"],\"articleSection\":[\"At Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/\",\"name\":\"Matt Sumell on Writing, Aggression, and \u201cMaking Nice\u201d\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-17T16:53:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-17T17:09:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"The author discusses his first book, the \u201csecond puberty\u201d that men go through, and the mendacity of \u201cautobiographical fiction.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Intermittent Explosive Disorder: An Interview with Matt Sumell\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7d545abe07be74827d8cd08bb6c25bbf\",\"name\":\"Meredith Turits\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/317c0bde3585de9c38eda71c38d365e4be33558b423ef72eb5fc197ec2b45103?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/317c0bde3585de9c38eda71c38d365e4be33558b423ef72eb5fc197ec2b45103?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Meredith Turits\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/mturits\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matt Sumell on Writing, Aggression, and \u201cMaking Nice\u201d","description":"The author discusses his first book, the \u201csecond puberty\u201d that men go through, and the mendacity of \u201cautobiographical fiction.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Intermittent Explosive Disorder: An Interview with Matt Sumell by Meredith Turits","og_description":"February 17, 2015 \u2013 In Spring 2012, The Paris Review published Matt Sumell\u2019s short story \u201cToast,\u201d in which the narrator, Alby, humiliates his girlfriend so creatively, and so","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-02-17T16:53:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-17T17:09:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1500,"height":1163,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Meredith Turits","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Meredith Turits","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/"},"author":{"name":"Meredith Turits","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7d545abe07be74827d8cd08bb6c25bbf"},"headline":"Intermittent Explosive Disorder: An Interview with Matt Sumell","datePublished":"2015-02-17T16:53:29+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-17T17:09:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/"},"wordCount":1938,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg","keywords":["aggression","Autobiography","families","fiction","interviews","Los Angeles","Making Nice","masculinity","Matt Sumell","novels","Screenplays","siblings"],"articleSection":["At Work"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/","name":"Matt Sumell on Writing, Aggression, and \u201cMaking Nice\u201d","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg","datePublished":"2015-02-17T16:53:29+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-17T17:09:41+00:00","description":"The author discusses his first book, the \u201csecond puberty\u201d that men go through, and the mendacity of \u201cautobiographical fiction.\u201d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mattsumell.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/intermittent-explosive-disorder-an-interview-with-matt-sumell\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Intermittent Explosive Disorder: An Interview with Matt Sumell"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7d545abe07be74827d8cd08bb6c25bbf","name":"Meredith Turits","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/317c0bde3585de9c38eda71c38d365e4be33558b423ef72eb5fc197ec2b45103?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/317c0bde3585de9c38eda71c38d365e4be33558b423ef72eb5fc197ec2b45103?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Meredith Turits"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/mturits\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/798"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82771"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82791,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82771\/revisions\/82791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}