We're All Damaged
Ratings14
Average rating3.9
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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It's a cruel fact that if your wife cheats on you, the guy will have a name like Tyler. Something cool–something your parents never would have had the guts to name you.
This Is Where I Leave You
This Is Where I Leave You
For a while now, I've had to keep reminding myself that I'm a nice person. Like, nice nice. Midwestern nice. Half the people who signed my high school yearbook told me so–it's documented. A few of them even mentioned that I should never change, never ever. I once helped a blind lady walk across a grocery store parking lot in the rain. I used to run 5Ks on Saturday mornings to fight cancer and juvenile diabetes and all of that horrible shit.
Obergefell v. Hodge
really
I've given it some thought, and, seriously, there's just no way Facebook can be good for you. I'm sure there have been studies, so this probably isn't some brilliant revelation, but I'll say it anyway. On the surface, it's harmless enough, I guess. How bad can it really be with its endless baby posts, food pictures, and beachy foot selfies? But it's not that simple. Mixed in with all of its silly bullshit, Facebook is the literal manifestation of all our regrets, looping and looping, for free, on our computers and phones. People who should be gone and safely out of forever are there again, one cryptic little glimpse at a time, reminding us of all the things we should or shouldn't have done.
Oh hell no. Not another short, moderately unattractive and unhappy man who is brought back to life by the fabled “manic pixie dream girl” who has nothing better to do than be quirky, spout life-changing aphorisms and sleep with him (of course), all without having any purpose besides making him feel better about himself.
If you can move past that annoying cliched character, We're All Damaged (that's some high level insight, huh?) is funny, and our hero Andy does find himself in some wonderfully bizarre and frequently cringe-inducing situations. But the fact that his personal growth basically comes at the cost of the MPDG left a sour taste in my mouth.
The book cleverly references one of the main characters in Norman's debut novel, Domestic Violets, which I enjoyed much more largely due to female characters who seemed like actual women.