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This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love.
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. As characters in various stages of life try to navigate love, they court obsession, madness, and transcendence.
180 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2019
About the author
Jennifer Wortman
4 books27 followersJennifer Wortman is the author of the short story collection This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love. Her work appears in TriQuarterly, Hayden's Ferry Review, Brevity, DIAGRAM, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and elsewhere, and has been cited as distinguished in Best American Short Stories. A recipient of fellowships from the NEA and MacDowell, she lives with her family in Colorado, where she serves as associate fiction editor for Colorado Review and teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
October 1, 2020
Lord, this book hurt, it *hurt* and it is one of the best things I've read in a long time. Rather, it moved me in a way a book hasn't in a while (and it's been a really good quarantine companion.) It's about addiction and mental health and loneliness and destructive relationships and it's ugly but not in the way of physically visceral scenes...like psychically ugly, but in the most beautiful, beautiful, fucking painful and truthfully phrased way. The closest thing I can come to how this book made me feel is maybe stuff from Amy Hempel or Tamara Faith Berger, though her actual writing is like neither. (maybe the shorter shorts are Hempel-like.) Anyway. I adored this book and Jennifer Wortman is amazing.
July 9, 2022
68 GR ratings, most of them 5-stars is nothing to sneeze at. Yes, this collection is that good. As I've said before, I almost never give a collection 5 stars, as not every story can POSSIBLY be 5-stars. These are. It's a thing when authors write about characters who struggle with ennui, depression, addition, or general dysfunction, and it's supposed to be interesting. Jenny writes about these characters with compassion and immediacy, so that you do love them as much as her other characters do. So that you see what it's like. I also loved the Boulder angle--psychics, pet psychics, etc. A subculture I've been part of for a long time--so much so that my son wrote his Harvard essay on having a "past-life experience" while visiting campus. I love it when this stuff is treated seriously in fiction.
This book came out before Split/Lip had a book designer, and that's unfortunate. I might have passed on it for that reason alone, but the stories drew me in despite formatting issues. Read. Well worth it!
This book came out before Split/Lip had a book designer, and that's unfortunate. I might have passed on it for that reason alone, but the stories drew me in despite formatting issues. Read. Well worth it!
June 9, 2021
Goddamn, is Jennifer Wortman a genius. What a profound collection of stories (and some of the best writing on depression I've ever read).
June 8, 2022
A masterclass in writing well, specifically regarding compression, expansion, distillation, voice, and dialogue.
I had the feeling while reading it, in some moments, that I suddenly have binoculars and something that initially seems far away and untouchable is now right in front of me, within reach, magnified to a necessary importance. These lines are intriguing and revealing at once, both exacting and opening.
I enjoyed how these moments came like arrows, but they were always multi-dimensional. Funny but also telling and fitting for the character.
Overall, reading this book felt like looking at a gasoline spill. There were so many colors, and depending on where the light shines, or what angle you look at it, you can see rainbows or yellows or dark shiny edges. It’s a rich experience. Humanity comes through, but it’s shimmery or blended or beautiful or smelly or ugly, but always with other aspects one tilt away.
Looking forward to other writing by Jenny Wortman.
I had the feeling while reading it, in some moments, that I suddenly have binoculars and something that initially seems far away and untouchable is now right in front of me, within reach, magnified to a necessary importance. These lines are intriguing and revealing at once, both exacting and opening.
I enjoyed how these moments came like arrows, but they were always multi-dimensional. Funny but also telling and fitting for the character.
Overall, reading this book felt like looking at a gasoline spill. There were so many colors, and depending on where the light shines, or what angle you look at it, you can see rainbows or yellows or dark shiny edges. It’s a rich experience. Humanity comes through, but it’s shimmery or blended or beautiful or smelly or ugly, but always with other aspects one tilt away.
Looking forward to other writing by Jenny Wortman.
January 7, 2020
These stories are brilliant, witty, sharply observed and absorbing. I found the depiction of teen angst thrilling because I think that particular period of life is so hard to capture. I was particularly in love with Which Truth, Patricia? for the way it plays with our ideas of the meaning of fiction, while also still being a good story in its own right. Also, there are great insights in these stories into depression and what it really feels like to experience it for each individual. It's never the same, but there are some threads that Wortman picks up on. This is a must read short story collection!
August 26, 2019
Wonderful collection of stories--vibrant, sad, playful. Many of them catch you unexpectedly in their grip and manage to be poignant and funny all at once. Full of wisdom and heft but they never feel didactic or authorial. Will read everything Wortman writes!
October 7, 2022
i read this because my professor works for split lip and we were looking at the website and this jsut looked really interesting. and i was not disappointed this was so amazing. i always love the stories that take one concept and look at it from million different perspectives like this did with love. i love the short ones and the long ones. this was just really amazing and i loved the writing and concepts behind the stories. deserves the high rating. side note: is the author from colorado because i felt like every story took place there lol and i loved it. just the simple sentences that make you understand the story as a whole better. this just makes me want to read more books from smaller publishers.
December 29, 2021
Jennifer Wortman has a special skill for writing dialogue that wounds. Youch. I blew through this collection in a day and a half. These stories, many of them about addiction, depression, toxic family dynamics and mother bashing, are painful and irreverent, emotionally gripping, funny - I loved the one featuring Animal Psychic and the final story, written from the pov of an alcoholic man in recovery who takes a lit seminar with an intimidating female professor, in particular, but all of them are great. Thanks to Casey Plett for the recommendation.
March 19, 2022
I absolutely LOVED this collection! It hit me just right and made me want to read AND write more short stories immediately! I have a feeling I’ll be re-reading it very soon.
Disclaimer: I am the Publicity & Reviews Manager for Split/Lip Press.
Disclaimer: I am the Publicity & Reviews Manager for Split/Lip Press.
July 9, 2019
A lovely book of stories with characters and insights I think about long after reading!
December 7, 2019
Wonderful stories. Great characters. Loved this book
January 8, 2022
Just read the first story and you'll be hooked. Wortman knows exactly what she's doing in every one of these stories.
November 20, 2019
I’d been saving this collection for when I felt emotionally and creatively ready to be brought to my knees, and my goodness did these 13 stories deliver. I’d never before been compelled to immediately reread a book – because I didn’t want the stirring experience to end, and because I knew there would be more to uncover in the somehow effortlessly tight yet luminous first-person narrations of relatable scenarios gone askew in the best and worst ways. Here you'll find depression, a couple of psychics, and a dreamy pinball hot shot named Dirt. And coursing through each story is yet another kind of love, noble and relentless.
July 4, 2019
Get this book! It is so good. Wortman's stories are scary and intense and sometimes funny. Many of them are about characters whom you might want to punch, not least because they tell you more than you wanted to know about yourself. The book is well-constructed collection of tight, taut stories about mostly young women dealing with love, school, family, nightmares, work, grief, and mental illness, with beautiful pacing between more traditional short stories and flash fiction.
February 15, 2021
These powerful stories take you by surprise. In deceptively simple prose, Wortman mines fears and insecurities and the inscrutable need to be loved, and forms stories which show us how broken, but beautiful her characters are—and by extension all of us.
March 24, 2022
This is a really strong collection of short fiction based on (you guessed it) love in all its forms. Some of the most powerful are the flash pieces—a gut punch in under a thousand words. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in short form fiction.
August 7, 2019
Gorgeous, dark stories. A thoroughly original voice. Not to be missed.
Read
December 11, 2020A lovely collection of stories that center around recovering addicts and the difficulty of being a good adult.
December 10, 2020
Such great writing! my review: https://www.therupturemag.com/rupture...
January 12, 2021
Absolutely incredible, I am in awe of these stories and their power. 10 stars.
April 7, 2021
There was so much emotional insight in this book that I cried trying to describe one of the stories to my husband. Well written all around. Highly recommend.
Read
August 4, 2019Fine collection of stories, running flash to full-length, centered around characters struggling, often seeming a bit out of place in their own lives, as they navigate issues such as mental illness, substance abuse, and loss.
February 17, 2023
Phenomenal writing. A collection of short stories between 3 pages and 30 pages. I don't think I have ever read a more accurate story about depression before. Anybody that likes good writing should read this.
April 10, 2023
I’ve been thinking about meaning and purpose and blah blah blah a lot lately. I suppose this review blog is my legacy since I won’t be having children if I can help it. So, some depressive anxious person in the future: here you go, you’ll probably like this book. It’s right up your alley. Touches all the hot point for you. Most of the stories are about an only semi-coded version of the author. Wortman’s surrogates are all anxious depressives who treat staying in bed for months and then going on binges of self-harmful behavior like it’s totally normal, of course I do that, doesn’t everyone?
The matter of factness of the depressive language is amazing. Wortman shows what it’s like to be in the depths of a depression without it feeling wrought, which is a very hard thing to do.
“Love You. Bye.” captures exactly what it means to have such little sense of self that you’re willing to throw your entire self into another person because they acknowledge your existence.
“What Family Does” does this as well, but adds in a shitty townie dirtbag and a legacy of a family that exists for its own sake. Marc Maron always says he grew up around his parents and that’s a decent description of this family. The protagonists parents don’t really parent the protagonist, but they are there.
Wortman blurs the lines of fiction and reality in most of the stories and then doubles down on blurring those lines in a super postmodern way that seems annoying at first, but then she sticks with the bit hard enough that it brings it back around in “Which Truth, Patricia?” I don’t want to spoil the magic there, but I started reading that one and was like, “Oh, at least there’s one story here I don’t immediately love. Actually, this is kind of annoying.” And then I ended up adoring it, like every other story in this book.
Themes, characters and events cross into different stories even though the characters are “different,” or at least have different names, which adds to the everyone here is really a surrogate for Wortman herself aspect.
I loved all these stories. Everything felt very real and authentic, which really just means these stories felt like they could be from my life. They seem real to me because I’m on the verge always of being this much of an anxious depressive.
The matter of factness of the depressive language is amazing. Wortman shows what it’s like to be in the depths of a depression without it feeling wrought, which is a very hard thing to do.
“Love You. Bye.” captures exactly what it means to have such little sense of self that you’re willing to throw your entire self into another person because they acknowledge your existence.
“What Family Does” does this as well, but adds in a shitty townie dirtbag and a legacy of a family that exists for its own sake. Marc Maron always says he grew up around his parents and that’s a decent description of this family. The protagonists parents don’t really parent the protagonist, but they are there.
Wortman blurs the lines of fiction and reality in most of the stories and then doubles down on blurring those lines in a super postmodern way that seems annoying at first, but then she sticks with the bit hard enough that it brings it back around in “Which Truth, Patricia?” I don’t want to spoil the magic there, but I started reading that one and was like, “Oh, at least there’s one story here I don’t immediately love. Actually, this is kind of annoying.” And then I ended up adoring it, like every other story in this book.
Themes, characters and events cross into different stories even though the characters are “different,” or at least have different names, which adds to the everyone here is really a surrogate for Wortman herself aspect.
I loved all these stories. Everything felt very real and authentic, which really just means these stories felt like they could be from my life. They seem real to me because I’m on the verge always of being this much of an anxious depressive.
October 10, 2024
Worth a read though the stories could be tighter and it's concerns are strictly youthful.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2025
Multiple slices of life connected to the heart, Wortman’s stories are personified by realism and courage despite the odds. Enjoyed reading longer stories with flash fiction between. Good book.
March 11, 2025
Great at dealing with the obvious themes of addiction and depression and (duh) love, but more importantly, manages to capture the ineffable spirit surrounding those things really well.
September 11, 2023
NAMED BEST NEW SHORT STORY COLLECTION BY WESTWORD
BRONZE WINNER IN THE 2019 FOREWORD INDIES
FINALIST FOR THE 2020 HIGH PLAINS BOOK AWARDS
FINALIST FOR THE 2020 COLORADO BOOK AWARDS
This gorgeous collection from Jennifer Wortman contains thirteen stories, full-length and flash, that explore love—sexual, platonic, filial, and beyond—in its gritty and beguiling forms. Throughout the collection, as characters in various stages of life try to navigate love, they court obsession, madness, and transcendence. Blurbed by Steve Almond, Steven Schwartz, and Erika Krouse, "This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love." is a must for any short story aficionado's TBR. Writes Almond, "Mercy and imagination are our only hope. These stories have them in spades."
BRONZE WINNER IN THE 2019 FOREWORD INDIES
FINALIST FOR THE 2020 HIGH PLAINS BOOK AWARDS
FINALIST FOR THE 2020 COLORADO BOOK AWARDS
This gorgeous collection from Jennifer Wortman contains thirteen stories, full-length and flash, that explore love—sexual, platonic, filial, and beyond—in its gritty and beguiling forms. Throughout the collection, as characters in various stages of life try to navigate love, they court obsession, madness, and transcendence. Blurbed by Steve Almond, Steven Schwartz, and Erika Krouse, "This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love." is a must for any short story aficionado's TBR. Writes Almond, "Mercy and imagination are our only hope. These stories have them in spades."
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews