Book Description

This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love. contains thirteen stories, full-length and flash, that explore love-sexual, platonic, filial, and beyond-in its gritty and beguiling forms. A small-town teenager pursues an eccentric pinball wizard after her grandfather's move to her home shakes up her parents' marriage; a chronic depressive turns to a TV animal psychic in hopes of mending her relationship with her dog-loving dad; a middle-aged recovering alcoholic goes back to college and becomes fixated on his stern professor. Throughout the collection, as characters in various stages of life try to navigate love, they court obsession, madness, and transcendence.Advance Praise for This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love. I love Jenny Wortman's stories! They are strange, sad, and funny. More important, Wortman is a writer wise to the perils of our fragile minds, which can be brought low by demons of mental health. Mercy and imagination are our only hope. These stories have them in spades. -Steve Almond, author of Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country Jennifer Wortman's diverse stories are absolutely electric. They explore self-consciousness with unfailing wit and candor, while revealing our most hidden hurts and desires. In substance and style, they're a literary funhouse. What an intimate, wise, nervy, and soaring collection from a remarkable writer. -Steven Schwartz, author of Madagascar: New and Selected Stories This. This. This. Is. Fabulous. I love this book! Jennifer Wortman's stories cover narrative territory such as depression, isolation, sexual relationships, and family dysfunction, pairing pain with the humor and joy of Wortman's fresh and inimitable style. This debut collection stuns and delights. I look forward to reading more from this brilliant, vibrant author.-Erika Krouse, author of Contenders and Come Up and See Me Sometime