Bobo struggles to come to terms with his newfound intellect and self-awareness.

(from Beware of God)

Easy reader. The author’s deadpan style seems to be going for poignancy, but the narrator comes off more like a stand-up comedian fishing for laughing caesuras to break up his storytelling. So many one-sentence paragraphs and repeated lines. Some moments are genuinely memorable. It’s funny and thoughtful, but not too deep. A reading might very well be Auslander’s wheelhouse. Which is not a bad thing. We’ll see, when he and Eric Bogosian read at the Library on May 5. (Since I will try to whip up a short article on this reading for the paper, you may see some more Shalom Auslander here on I Read A Short Story Today.)
For a more contemplative, but half-as-funny take on unhappy zoo animals, please see Hannah Tinti’s “Reasonable Terms” which I read on March 15.

“The War of The Bernsteins”
Much to the chagrin on his wife, a man starts looking at everything in terms of how it will or will not affect his chances at post-death bliss.
Also defined by one-sentence paragraphs and repeated lines, but this one’s less jokey. Plus all the mean-spirited parts are sharp. The Lockhorns embroiled in a battle to the after-death!

“Somebody Up There Likes You”
A man who escapes death in a car accident ponders returning to his faith. Meanwhile, God, Lucifer and co. set about finishing the job. More repeated lines. Funny stuff, though. If Bloom was a little more fleshed out, I’d buy into his spiritual exploring more.