The Virtues of Benjamin Weissman

I first stumbled across Dear Dead Person by Benjamin Weissman in an Ivy League town bookstore I thought sold only used books but had new books at discounted prices. I flipped through a few pages and thought it'd be something I liked. And I indeed did. Now it sits high on the bookshelf where prying children fingers cannot reach.

I only recently obtained his 2004 book, Headless, but remember some reviews of it here and there when it came out. It seems to me Weissman has never been a huge blip on the commercial radar, unfortunately. In a marketplace where potty humor, silly violence, awkward sexual situations and good profanity is bankable, Weissman's work gracefully glides through unscathed.

Headless is known for it's opening piece, Hitler Ski Story. A quote lifted from another blog claims this to be a Weissman quote...
"Initially, I wanted to write that story from the perspective of a Hitler historian, under the premise that there was new information about Hitler having been a lousy skier, which is sort of the ultimate insult for a Tyrolean. But after seeing photographs of Hitler in the Alps, I couldn’t help but imagine his experience trying to ski. Maybe putting him on skis makes him an easy target for parody and humiliation."

His prose style is something I relate to. It is hard for his reader not to feel connected. The voice of his stories feel like it is a close friend that is telling you something he can and will only tell you. He tells you secrets, like in The Fecality of it All, or in the first book, Time Bomb, where he says, "The mating ritual can be so complicated. I tell her I want to be inside her now. I heard that in a porn film and it drove the actress crazy."

An appealing aspect to me of his work is that the stories are typically very short, just a few pages in length to 10 pages or so. Weissman typically dives right into a story and all you see is guts, the action of the narrative as it unfolds upon you and like that, he hits his point and the story closes. Simple. Swift. Just right.

You can read the book on Google Books HERE.

Read a short interview with Weissman HERE.