Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory

Stories

By: Raphael Bob-Waksberg

Narrated by: Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Full Cast, Nicholas Gonzalez, Colman Domingo, Natalie Morales, Raúl Esparza, Will Brill, Stephanie Beatriz, Emma Galvin

Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

From the creator of the beloved and universally acclaimed television series BoJack Horseman, a fabulously off-beat collection of short stories about love - the best and worst thing in the universe

Written with all the scathing dark humor that is a hallmark of BoJack Horseman, Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s stories will make you laugh, weep, and shiver in uncomfortably delicious recognition. In “A Most Blessed and Auspicious Occasion”, a young couple engaged to be married is forced to deal with interfering relatives dictating the appropriate number of ritual goat sacrifices for their wedding. “Missed Connection - m4w” is the tragicomic tale of a pair of lonely commuters eternally failing to make that longed-for contact. And in “More of the You That You Already Are”, a struggling employee at a theme park of dead presidents finds that love can’t be genetically modified.

Equally at home with the surreal and the painfully relatable (and both at once), Bob-Waksberg delivers a killer combination of humor, romance, whimsy, cultural commentary, and crushing emotional vulnerability.

Audiobook Table of Contents:

• "Salted Circus Cashews, Swear to God" read by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
• "short stories" read by Baron Vaughn, James Urbaniak, Kimiko Glenn, Colman Domingo, and Natalie Morales
• "Most Blessed and Auspicious Occasion" read by Raúl Esparza
• "Missed Connection - m4w" read by Colman Domingo
• "The Serial Monogamist’s Guide to Important New York City Landmarks" read by Natalie Morales
• "We Men of Science" read by James Urbaniak
• "Lies We Told Each Other (a partial list)" read by Kimiko Glenn and Raúl Esparza
• "These Are Facts" read by Will Brill
• "Lunch with the Person Who Dumped You" read by Stephanie Beatriz
• "Rufus." read by Baron Vaughn
• "Rules for Taboo" read by Will Brill and Emma Galvin
• "Up-and-Comers" read by Stephanie Beatriz
• "Move across the country." read by Colman Domingo
• "You Want to Know What Plays Are Like?" read by Emma Galvin
• "the poem" read by Nicholas Gonzalez
• "The Average of All Possible Things" read by Kimiko Glenn
• "More of the You That You Already Are" read by Nicholas Gonzalez
• "We will be close on Friday 18 July" read by Raphael Bob-Waksberg

©2019 Raphael Bob-Waksberg (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

One of NPR's Favorite Books of 2019

One of the A.V. Club's Favorite Books of 2019

“Raphael is the funniest male vegan who created an animated show about a talking horse working today. Run, don’t walk, to your local socialist knitting circle and tell them about this hilarious book.” (Rachel Bloom, creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend)

"This is exactly the kind of book you’d hope the creator of BoJack Horseman would write. Just as his animated show is a bleary-eyed tour de force composed of equal parts depression and fun, Bob-Waksberg’s debut story collection is wonderfully weird, pushing familiar stories to their absurdist limits (e.g., the couple who wants to keep their wedding simple with absolutely no goat-sacrificing). Yet each one has a chewy emotional center and a gut punch worth waiting for." (Maris Kreizman, Vulture, “12 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Summer”)

“Bob-Waksberg manages to balance his ironic humor with a deep sincerity that continues to surprise and delight... [These stories] do that mysterious thing that good art can do: make your heart clench with feeling, your eyes fill with tears, your lips twitch toward a smile or all three at once.” (Ilana Masad, The Washington Post)

Incredibly funny and true

These stories are incredibly heartfelt and hilarious. Bob-Waksberg weaves a beautiful thread between complete fictional nonsense and the truth about humanity and ourselves. I'm recommending this book to everyone I know. I absolutely loved it.

Raphael B.W. does it again.

The stories overal were very good, though some performances were better then others. Especially Colman Domingo does a really good job. Favorite story: We men of Science.

Must listen for Bojack fans

And also must listen if you like deep melancholic aching and existential pain mixed with any fleeting happiness you might ever feel at any point. My soul hurts and I like it. Performances were also stellar.

A little more miss than hit

... but the ones that hit. Hit hard. The audible presentation is all around terrific. I love when they get multiple actors to perform the different stories. Really make the whole book feel like an experience.

Made laugh and cry

If you like Bojack Horseman or Undone, get this book asap. This book is a rollercoaster of emotions

There’s not a lot more that I want from a book

This book was full of gritty realistic love stories of different variations. While the love stories themselves were very human and realistic, sometimes the components were not human or realistic which made it even better. The way it was told felt very familiar and relatable. I loved every moment.

A delight

This book was an absolute delight. With light and heavy themes; with relatable yet absurd storylines it was a pleasure. I listened to it while running and cooking and even re-listened to a few stories with my SO. Will absolutely be revisiting. Love it!

Amazing

This book is real. Not all the stories are real and factual but the feelings they bring are real and true. And that’s hard to find sometimes. But I’m glad I can find it in this book.

Truly excellent

Weird and wonderful and heartbreaking and hilarious and tender and honest and generally excellent little collection, expertly preformed. A real gem. What a joy.

A Novel Novella

Creative and thought provoking series of short stories by the mind behind Bojack Horseman will have you laugh, cry, and go WTF?! many times. Some parts are short, a bit nonsensical, or silly while others draw you in emotionally, comically, or tragically with great performances and the major themes on the absurdities of life and love and being a "gooddog"