Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory: Stories: Raphael Bob-Waksberg

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Perhaps my expectations for this particular book were too high -- in his publicity event, Bob-Waksberg talked confidently (if sarcastically) about how he was a good writer. And I'd already read a lot of nice things about it.

In “Salted Circus Cashews, Swear to God,” a woman goes on a first date with a man. The date goes well, but then the man gives the woman a can of cashews. The long label on the can makes many unconvincing claims that it is not actually a prank filled with spring-loaded rubber snakes. Bob-Waksberg: Working on a TV show has really helped me to think visually, because I [naturally] think in terms of dialogue, or internal thoughts, first. Often, as a reader, I am less interested in scene description … I don’t have a lot of character descriptions [in the collection] because I like the idea that people can read this story and feel like, Oh, this is me. I think when you hear, “Her blue eyes sparkle,” you might go, Oh, I guess it’s not me then. more of the you that you already are," which took me a while to get into; which takes place at a themepark of dead presidents; and which is weird and funny and sad. These Are Facts – probably the one I liked least in the collection, following a teenage girl’s reunion with her estranged half-brother on a family vacation. I liked the writing, but the story itself didn’t hook me quite enough.Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory is a collection of stories by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. In “The Serial Monogamist’s Guide to Important New York City Landmarks,” a woman walks through New York City and tries not to think about past relationships. Unfortunately, nearly every landmark is a place where she went on a date in a past relationship. But now I feel known and I feel loved. So I would like to think that future books I write will be able to maintain a little bit of everything. I’ve allowed myself to change and write in ways that reflect how I feel about things now. Some of the stories in this book I could not write now, so I’m happy to have this record of them.

i don’t have any feelings about this one, but i will say that he manages his rhyme scheme and scansion much better than lang leav ever has.I try to counter that a little bit in my work or suggest that, no, you cannot depend on a person to make you happy. A person can be a part of that and should be. If a person is making you unhappy, that is a bad situation. But I don’t want to suggest the problem is just that you need to find a better person. A Frankenstein-esque monster that is a genetically reconstructed hybrid of the first ten US presidents, all rolled into one I started in sketch comedy, and that’s not what I’m doing anymore. I don’t want my short stories to feel like a comedy sketch. I try to find in all of [my stories], what is the emotional hook? What is this story actually about? What is this character going through? Playlists containing Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, read by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Various

The Average of All Possible Things – when an average girl with an average life and an average job has a rough breakup, but admitting things aren’t quite average is a little too hard These stories] conjure struggles for connection in grimly surreal alternative realities that recall the probing comic imaginings of George Saunders.” — Los Angeles Times Rufus – oh my god, this story both broke and warmed my heart. It’s told entirely through a dog’s point of view, as he sees his owner enter and fall out of a relationship…and how his unflinching loyalty makes him unmistakably Goodog.

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In “These Are Facts,” 16-year-old Heather goes on vacation with her parents in Mexico. Also joining them is Heather’s estranged half-brother West. Heather desperately tries to form a bond with West so that he will not leave them again. The story ends ambiguously. Giorgis: How did you think about writing about guilt, especially in stories such as “We Men of Science,” which follows a man who transgresses in a series of small ways that ultimately prove disastrous? These stories, while infused with elements of fantasy, made me feel and feel more connected to the human condition.” —Elise Hu, TED Talks Daily The Poem” focuses on a couple—Fernando and Wendy. They begin dating after Wendy breaks off her engagement to someone else. Wendy sees the relationship as casual, but Fernando has very strong feelings for Wendy. On Valentine’s Day, Fernando gives Wendy a poem that he wrote for her. Wendy, now realizing how strong Fernando’s feelings for her are, decides to end the relationship.

SIDENOTE - i also really like the playfulness with fonts that occurs in this story and several others throughout the collection. it’s weird and wonky and fun. a series of ten... what to call these? too long to be epigrams, not didactic enough to be aphorisms, too interconnected to be flash fiction, too bleak to be greeting cards. a bitterbleak comedy, in outline form, bullet-pointing a couple’s relationship arc—all the empty reassurances, promises, self-delusions, and gaslighting that goes into maintaining a healthy modern relationship. another brief one, but it’s astute and funny, plus it gets points for successfully suggesting the entire body of a relationship using only these skeletal snippets. You Want to Know What Plays Are Like? – my other favorite, this blurs together expectations about theater and how difficult parts of family history can’t be escaped, in art or in real life short stories” read byBaron Vaughn, James Urbaniak, Kimiko Glenn, Colman Domingo, andNatalie MoralesBob-Waksberg: Guilt? Well, I mean, I’m Jewish. [ Laughs] As is the character in that story, actually. I think he’s the only explicitly Jewish character in the book, and he’s the most guilty. short stories – vignettes that point out all the inherent contradictions in the complex world of love and dating (For example: 3. “You’re not like other girls,'” he said to every girl.) Wonderfully absurd and unexpectedly moving. . . . These stories are at times poignant and triumphantly silly, but always manage to ring true.” — Publishers Weekly