Synopses & Reviews
"One of the funniest books you'll read this year."--Publishers Weekly
Love can be messy, painful, and even tragic. When seen through the eyes of Simon Rich it can also be hilarious.
In thirty short, sharp, ingenious stories, Rich conjures up some unforgettable romances: An unused prophylactic describes life inside a teenage boy's wallet; God juggles the demands of his needy girlfriend with the looming deadline for earth's creation; and a lovestruck Sherlock Holmes ignores all the clues that his girlfriend's been cheating on him.
As enchanting, sweet, and absurd as love itself, these stories are Simon Rich's Valentine to readers, an irresistible collection of delights. All that's missing is the heart-shaped box.
Synopsis
In
Center of the Universe, God struggles to balance the demands of his career with the needs of his long-term girlfriend.
In Magical Mr. Goat, a young girl's imaginary friend yearns to become more than friends.
In Unprotected, an unused prophylactic recalls his years spent trapped inside a teen boy's wallet. The stories in Simon Rich's new book are bizarre, funny, and yet...relatable. Rich explores love's many complications-losing it, finding it, breaking it, and making it-and turns the ordinary into the absurd. With razor-sharp humor and illustrations, and just in time for Valentine's Day, Rich takes readers for an exhilarating, hilarious ride on the rollercoaster of love.
About the Author
Simon Rich is the author of What in God's Name, Ant Farm, Free-Range Chickens, and Elliot Allagash. His work, including some of these stories, has appeared in The New Yorker ("It's always fairly obvious when a 'Shouts and Murmurs' piece in The New Yorker is the product of Simon Rich. Telltale signs include the elegant skewering of adult human behavior, as glimpsed through the eyes of children, animals, spectral beings, or inanimate objects-and the fact that the reader is hunched over laughing." - Joe Berkowitz, Fast Company). He has written film scripts for Lorne Michaels and Judd Apatow, and until recently he was a staff writer at Saturday Night Live; he currently writes for Pixar. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.