Raphael Bob-Waksberg Tells us About Love
In a Way That Can Only Be Described as The Raphael Bob-Waksberg's Way
I read Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s “Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory” because my sister was reading it and because I saw, after she sent me a photo of her current reads, the tiniest little footnote that says “Creator of Bojack Horseman.”
I love Bojack Horseman.
If not love, then painfully relate to him and that in itself is something to feel empathy for. For myself or for Bojack, that is up to you to decide.
We get a candid collection of short love stories from the man who had the audacity and brilliance to create Bojack Horseman. Listening through this audiobook is an absolute treat because of the all-star cast lending their voices to its portrayal (Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Full Cast, Nicholas Gonzalez, Colman Domingo, Natalie Morales, Raúl Esparza, Will Brill, Stephanie Beatriz, and last but not least Emma Galvin) and making it sound like a cold read of a screenplay or maybe even a lost table read for a show.
As for the meat, the actual content of the book:
These short stories are fucking weird as shit.
Each stands alone on sturdy, albeit gnarled, legs and for someone who has a hard time paying attention to audiobooks, I was hooked.
Partly because of the voice talents, but also because every sentence was written in a way that you would not expect. There was so much nonsense and silliness and downright sadness woven into each story that I could not stop listening.
I finished this 6-hour something audiobook in just under 3 days and that’s either a testament to the prose or the traffic I am forced to indulge in.
I think the beauty of Bob-Waksberg’s writing is how absurd yet relatable it ultimately is.
We get stories about demon weddings, working at a USA president’s theme park, a dog’s POV, and a train.
Each story has such an unusual, absolutely absurd premise, but Bob-Waksberg never forgets to ground you. There is a universal theme just waiting to be uncovered, if you hold onto the page long enough.
Spoiler alert.
It’s love. In different shapes and forms and feelings and manifestations but it is all just love.
Each short story has a weird hook, but it comes down to the emotions, the feelings that loving and being in love evoke.
And he works that in such a way that yes, these scenarios are unrealistic and (at times) randomly stupid— but he holds back from nosediving into an empty pool and instead sits at the edge of it: he points out every crack and mossy bit in the hollow bowl. Then he looks up at the sky and you watch him for a beat.
And he makes a profound comment on how he wishes there was water, if not to dive into, then to reflect the beauty of the stars.
And. That’s kind of what his writing feels like.