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Girlfriending
A detective known for bold courage on the job deals with mental and physical abuse by his trophy wife. A woman strives to overcome the PTSD she brought from battlefields in Iraq so she can become a loving partner. In the title story, a socially dysfunctional man “girlfriends” women he “meets” in obituaries. From liaisons that are real, to those that are imaginary or somewhere between, Christopher T. Werkman skillfully creates characters beginning, ending, or finding a way through some type of romantic relationship. Girlfriending, Werkman’s collection of short stories, will fascinate, amuse, and astonish. Many of the stories are published in literary magazines and anthologies, but most appear only in this collection. His novel, Difficult Lies, was published in 2015.
234 pages, Paperback
Published August 22, 2017
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 28, 2017
Reviewed by Sarah Stuart for Readers' Favorite
Girlfriending: A Collection of Stories by Chrisopher T Werkman comprises twenty-six stories of varying lengths and styles, all of them about an aspect of relationships. The protagonists may be male or female, and almost any adult age. The only certainty is that from the first story to the last they are thought-provoking and entertaining. Girlfriending, the title story, is actually, and appropriately, number thirteen and it leads from what appears to be elderly Archie Descamp’s visits to his dead girlfriends’ graves to a dramatic surprise ending in a funeral parlour. The story immediately after it, Crapshoot, is the shortest at only one page: Chrisopher T Werkman still contrives a satisfying completeness. The beauty of short stories is they fit so well into busy lives, and Girlfriending is a fine collection.
I enjoyed Girlfriending: A Collection of Stories because I couldn’t guess the end of any of the stories, and I had absolutely no idea what to expect of the next; they are all so different. My own personal favourite is Crashing. It grabs the reader with lines like: “Watching him move with that cycle was sexual. High compression porn.” And yet it is well-grounded in Lacey’s experiences in Iraq; even the cause of her breakdown on active service links directly to her sympathy for a skunk that has sprayed her with its appallingly smelly defence liquid. Chrisopher T Werkman is a masterful writer of short stories and I recommend them to all readers. Favourites will vary but enjoyment of them all is guaranteed.
Girlfriending: A Collection of Stories by Chrisopher T Werkman comprises twenty-six stories of varying lengths and styles, all of them about an aspect of relationships. The protagonists may be male or female, and almost any adult age. The only certainty is that from the first story to the last they are thought-provoking and entertaining. Girlfriending, the title story, is actually, and appropriately, number thirteen and it leads from what appears to be elderly Archie Descamp’s visits to his dead girlfriends’ graves to a dramatic surprise ending in a funeral parlour. The story immediately after it, Crapshoot, is the shortest at only one page: Chrisopher T Werkman still contrives a satisfying completeness. The beauty of short stories is they fit so well into busy lives, and Girlfriending is a fine collection.
I enjoyed Girlfriending: A Collection of Stories because I couldn’t guess the end of any of the stories, and I had absolutely no idea what to expect of the next; they are all so different. My own personal favourite is Crashing. It grabs the reader with lines like: “Watching him move with that cycle was sexual. High compression porn.” And yet it is well-grounded in Lacey’s experiences in Iraq; even the cause of her breakdown on active service links directly to her sympathy for a skunk that has sprayed her with its appallingly smelly defence liquid. Chrisopher T Werkman is a masterful writer of short stories and I recommend them to all readers. Favourites will vary but enjoyment of them all is guaranteed.
Displaying 1 of 1 review