BOOK REVIEW: Someone Who Will Love You In All Your Damaged Glory, by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
I’ve known for years that Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of my favorite TV show Bojack Horseman, came out with a book of short stories, but I only managed to read it now.
Because Bojack Horseman was so well-written, somehow I got it in my head that this book will be amazing, too. I overlooked that with Bojack, an entire team was working on making it good, from visuals to dialogue and plot. Bob-Waksberg himself says in the acknowledgment that writing a book is more solitary than his other writing pursuits.
A lot of the stories in this book have an interesting premise: a couple planning a wedding that’s getting increasingly extravagant, a group of friends who suddenly get superpowers, a scientist jumping between universes.
Bob-Waksberg is able to take the surreal world of his characters and make it seem mundane, which is a good thing because we’re able to focus more on the characters’ grounded, all-too-human flaws and emotions. Some stories, like We Men of Science and Rufus, I thoroughly enjoyed – they were written with unique perspectives on love and relationships.
Possibly my favorite story in this collection is The Average of All Possible Things. It’s not surreal or magical in the slightest; in fact, the story starts by the protagonist listing all the average things and activities in her daily life. She is reeling from a relationship ending; when she was with her boyfriend, she felt singular and glamorous, but now that they’ve broken up, she feels unremarkable, ordinary. It reminded me of my own thought patterns when I was dealing with breakups.
However, there were also stories that felt like filler or fluff, like Lies We Told Each Other and Rules for Taboo. I recognize the limitations imposed by their very short length, and that they were probably not meant to be fully-fleshed characters to get invested in. But I found myself speeding through them because they felt like eating empty calories. In these pieces, Bob-Waksberg seemed more interested in the format or premise (the 2 stories I mentioned read like online listicles) than the story.
Overall, I think it’s hit or miss. If Bob-Waksberg writes more books, I’d read them, because I do see potential there.