The terrifying imagination of the debut writer
A beloved character actor becomes an author
It is always gratifying when a gifted entertainer is able to build a wide ranging resume that showcases their ability and talent. Actor and comedian Brett Gelman’s resume has been stacked with a variety of roles on screen and film, an impressive catalog that includes “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Twin Peaks: The Return,” “The Office,” Amazon’s “Fleabag,” and most notably as the conspiratorial investigative journalist Murray Bauman on the Netflix smash “Stranger Things.”
Gelman can now add a new entry to his growing oeuvre: author. In his debut short story collection, “The Terrifying Realm of the Possible: Nearly True Stories,” he wields a witty and comedic pen in five brief fictions. Each of the stories is focused on a protagonist in different stages of the lived experience — a child, a teenager, an adult, a senior, and a deceased character that is enmeshed in “a comet of deep Jewish anxiety.”
We are first introduced to Abraham
Amsterdam, a child going through difficulties that a gradeschooler cannot understand. Abraham is sensitive and taciturn, trapped in his own despair, and loved dearly by his parents. Yet, he does not feel he is getting enough attention from his schoolmates and is desperate to gain some much needed popularity.
As the collection progresses, Gelman’s characters age up. Mendel Freudenberger is a teenager whose storyline parallels Abraham’s — an introvert who is also hoping to gain the attention of some of his peers. Freudenberger is aspirational and talented, going so far as to write a one-man play. Yet, he seems to find himself in some arduous predicaments in the name of gaining others’ attention.
Absurd, aging and dead
Middle age has Jackie Cohen, an out-of-touch adult who feels he is both feted by and immune to the world around him, while also being the sort of person that many can’t stand. A “famous” comedian who is convinced he is the funniest man alive, Cohen (perhaps the most comical yet problematic of Gelman’s characters) is really an aloof and ostentatious grump who has somehow managed to live without facing any repercussions for his poor decisions.
Though the first two characters garnered my sympathy for their struggles, Cohen’s story signals the arrival of a cringe-worthy moment that had me rolling my eyes and giggling at the same time. Cohen’s absurdity, however, highlights Gelman’s ability to break the copy-and-paste mold established with the first two characters shifting the book into a high note.
Moving into the later years, Gelman explores the complications of aging. Iris is Gelman’s lone female character and senior citizen. She is a woman holding on to a past that has long left her, reflected in her son, who is reminded of his mother’s stubbornness far too often.
The final story takes on the afterlife. Z’s background is relatively unknown. Stuck somewhere between heaven and hell, Z is wandering through the remnants of a life that has ended with too many questions. As Z traipses through purgatory, confronting others whose lives have ended, it’s clear few questions will ever be answered. The conversations between Z, God and Satan in this chapter are absolutely hysterical.
Gelman’s ambitious writing style allows him to play with structural expectations, sprinkling in diary entries, screenplays, and poetry from both the character and narrator’s perspectives that helps fully develop their language and backstories.
Though there are a few rough moments, places where Gelman’s inexperience as a writer shines through, I enjoyed this debut book; there is no question that Gelman has delivered a zany and entertaining work.
“The Terrifying Realm of the Possible” is a dazzling collection with easily digestible characters and laugh-out-loud storytelling that shows that Gelman is not content on merely reading, memorizing and reciting lines — he is also very good at creating them too.