By Jeremy Azevedo

Things I’ve Learned From Woman Who’ve Dumped me is a new book, edited by Ben Karlin, that attempts to put a humorous spin on the soul-crushing topics of unrequited love, rejection and failed relationships.

This is not like some kind of bullcrap self-help book like the title may suggest, but more like a collection of very honest and amusing short stories from various authors. The exaggerated autobiographical style employed most frequently here is reminiscent of Dave Eggers “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”, a long-form stand up comedy routine in written form, minus (most of) the dick jokes.

Ben Karlin is best known for his work producing the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, and has assembled an excellent group of writers to submit their own little slice of life accounts of relationships gone awry. The stories within can range from the utterly humiliating (Matt Goodman’s “Being Awkward Can Be a Prophylactic Against Dry Humping”) to the obscenely melancholy (Bob Kerry’s “Sometimes You Find a Lost Love, Sometimes You Don’t). None of these stories (save for maybe one or two) venture into cry-for-help territory, thankfully.


Not a scene from this particular book, but may as well be.

My favorites are those that manage to be both sad and funny, like the stories submitted by Will Forte (Beware of Math Tutors Who Ride Motorcycles) and Damian Kulash (A Dog Is No Reason to Stay Together). These are the type of stories that most of us can relate to, stories about that first naïve relationship in which we all got our ass handed to use at least once. There are also genuinely funny stories too, like David Wain’s play about the futility of persistence or Bob Odenkirk’s mini seminar “Nine Years Is the Exact Right Amount of Time to Be in a Bad Relationship”.

There are one or two authors that maybe didn’t understand the assignment and either used this book as therapy like Andy Selsberg or a place to brag about their conquests like Todd Hanson. But for the most part these stories breeze right by, sometimes confronting you with some uncomfortable memories but at the same time giving you reason to laugh at them. Any guy who’s ever been in a particularly nasty relationship, or any woman who wants to know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the dreaded pussy whip would surely have an enjoyable time reading “Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me”.