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)  

Breaks your heart in the best way just like bojack

I am a lover of short stories, and a lover of the show Bojack Horseman. If you are either or both of these things, you will really love this book. If you are not a lover of either or both of these things, I don’t have much of an opinion about what you might feel reading this book.

This book is awesome

Normally i only like regular novel length fiction. I never read short stories but this was on some audible best of list so I tried it and also I liked the title because i love a flawed character. These stories were so good. The premises so odd but at their core so universal. The performances were exactly right. The readers were perfect. Highly recommend. Dont read it. Listen to it.

One of the best on audible

This is probably one of the best audio books of had the privilege of listening to. The performance was varied with multiple actors, and felt like it was directed in detail the whole way through. You can tell that this is someone who has experience in TV and working with voice casts.

The book itself is very charming. In many anthologys, it can be hard to retain an interest. One story that you were invested in ends, and then you have to work to reinvest in another. Any falters in my interest were very short though.

The storys themselves made me tear up a few times. Waksberg has this great way of presenting information atypically, but in the way that best serves his message. He'll couch hard truths of relationships in a series of lies, and understate the most important moments. The lack of direct input at these crucial moments gives you quiet to take the text in a way that means the most to you. Honestly, this is a fantastic book and a standout in the format.

All short stories🤔 Some you will hate or love

These stories are a mix bag for. When I heard the creator of bojack horseman wrote this book I know I had to read this book. Or rather listen to the book. For me personally I only enjoyed about four of the short stories. The rest of the stories I did not enjoyed but I still finished them anyway. I really appreciate that every story had a new narrator. That being said the narrator were all fine giving me the story verbally. That's it for my review. enjoy the audible version of this book.

A book that's also a hug and a slap in the face

Every time I was done with a chapter, I thought it was my favorite only to be slammed by yet another terrifyingly real point of view of what loss, love, grief, hope and connection all feel like. I'm in awe with the voice acting, especially Kimiko's and the guy who read Rufus (whose name is scaping me). The longer stories are in no way more nuanced than the short ones, they all carry both the scary and the beautiful parts of loving all the same, just packed into different containers. Whether you're going through a breakup or not, I can't recommend Raphael's writing enough.

Made me feel Loved, Damaged, and Glorious

I honestly bought this book on a whim, and it turned out to be one of the most beautiful series of stories i'd ever heard. I adore this book.

Absolutely amazing!

This book is an amazingly deep and beautiful collection of stories. I loved every minute of it! The performances are nuanced and moving, and the writing is so painfully relatable that it felt like it was plucked from my very own experiences. I can't recommend it enough!

A must for Bojack Horseman fans

As a lover of Bojack Horseman, I had high hopes for this collection, and Bob-Waksberg didn't disappoint. Combining outrageous madcap creativity with complex and relatable explorations of the struggles of being human, these stories have the same kind of resonance as individual episodes of the writer's great animated show, while exploring new worlds and ideas in miniature. Hilarious and poignant, all at once, in a way that no one can quite pull off like Bob-Waksberg. And the narrator performances are a treat, feeling more like miniature one-person play monologues than book readings. Like almost every short story collection, some are more successful than others, but nearly all are excellent. Highly recommended.

Not memorable.

Great title. But this collection of stories is not at all memorable. And too New York bubble focused. Get Out!

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!