Bugsy and Other Stories by Rafael Frumkin
I love a good book of short stories: they’re like little stashes of candy offering delightful nibbles of pleasure with low commitment. It is not uncommon for a book of short stories to start off with a banger (this one does) and then fizzle out, with subsequent entries paling gradually as the pages turn (this one doesn’t). Fewer short story collections can carry my attention throughout the distance of the book. In Bugsy, the intimacy, comedy, and timing Frumkin brings to each story extends to the structure of the collection. When the book lay untouched for a few days mid-read, I realized I was future tripping on whether or not the end of the collection would deliver. I didn’t want to be disappointed. That’s when Frumkin introduced me to Garrett Stillwater, a Gen Z Stalker-Incel whose imagination for desire, albeit shallow, had me almost rooting for him throughout a comedic romp through his somewhat successful mission to meet the e-girl object of his obsession (Don’t worry, she doesn’t run off with him). Like my favorite LPs, this cache of treats is stellar front to back. I sing along to every track.
Frumkin carefully invites a reader into the depth of humanity by rounding out the most minor characters with brief, elegant sentences like
Flora’s father was a quiet man, and tall, which led some people to mistake him for imposing.
He reminds me that human nature encourages my judgment of everything and person I encounter. And how wrong I can be so much of the time.
Young, confused queers, sympathetic incels, BDSM polyamorists, asexual lesbian-porn directors, empowered exiled teenagers, psychiatrists riddled by their own humanity, non-verbal autistic children and their maxxed-out parents, as well as one dying grandmother take the mic in Frumkin’s work. Edges of convention are explored. This is literature for the rest of us. Will the psychiatrist lose his license? Is Andie underage or not? Frumkin never tells, and the reader is left to interrogate their own ideas.
Because I have difficulty suspending my disbelief and because I’ve been a mostly closeted queer person constantly searching for a reflection of myself, I have a preference toward true stories. I’ve devoured mountains of memoir and biography. The stories in Bugsy project a brilliant and gritty realism that reveals an author paying close attention to his surroundings and describing it impeccably. The characters might be fictitious, but I say the stories are real, and these are stories that need to be heard.
Upon closing the book, and I wouldn’t want anything for Rafael Frumkin that he wouldn’t want for himself, I really want him to write for TV. Admittedly, that’s a bit of a non sequitur, but when I’m too tired to read, I become further exhausted by scrolling through the cesspool of normative pablum. Hint: comment me recommendations for compelling queer screen along the lines of POSE, Transparent, Midnight Mass…what other provocative shows do we love? TIA!
