Robert Lopez (1) (1971–)

Good People is an incredible whirlwind confrontational challenge against the blanket statement of labeling the masses, seemingly average individuals, or downright scumbags as being ‘good people.’ Robert Lopez implores us to consider exactly what it means when we pay someone this compliment.

The twenty stories in Good People are consistently delivered in a conversational yet drunken-like stream of consciousness. It’s a voice that talks in circles yet steadily moves forward. We know from show more the start that Lopez is going to deliver an honest and gritty perspective of the human condition, that he won’t shy away from the unpopular and impolite thoughts and feeling we all have on occasion, yet cloaked in all this provocative honesty will be the unreliability of the narrators. The eponymous ‘good people’ aren’t the narrators in the stories (though they mostly think they are), but rather a mythical group of people whose facets can’t quite be defined. Is being a ‘good person’ an attribute of personality or a marker of action? If the former, how does mental illness and the instability of addiction complicate the matter? Is being a good person contingent upon pristine mental health and a loving, supportive upbringing? And if the latter, is the ultimate course of action and its consequences the bottom line to being a good or bad person? What role does intention play here, and how should we account for the harboring of malicious ‘bad person’ thoughts yet still choosing to enact beneficial, or at least non-harmful, deeds?

And underneath all these questions that the stories in Good People evoke, Lopez deftly forces us to consider why we universally and automatically assume that we, ourselves, are good people. show less

After I started this book I thought, “Oh Jesus, another collection of stories where nothing happens, and if something does, it never gets resolved.” But then, it began to grow on me. After a few stories, some short, others shorter, I began to realize the point was the journey and not the destination. I think.

Most of the characters are torn or estranged from family, many barely engaged in normal life. I don’t know how you make this funny, but Robert Lopez does. Laughter through pain. show more In Goodnight Maybe Forever a man planning suicide gets beaten, a lot, usually by people who are supposed to help keep him safe – family, doctors, his mother.

Another character is trying to find his sister, maybe she lives in Piscataway, to introduce her to his new Eastern European bride who he met playing poker. “I can hardly understand questions myself, let alone the answers.” The title story, featuring more clueless men, is the best. Wonder and cluelessness are rampant. “I see the trucks speeding by and imagine what it’d feel like to get run over by one. I’m sure it would hurt.” Yes, like life itself. show less

I liked the way the inner lives of Lopez's characters are evoked in this collection of short works previously published in small press publications. His characters generally have disjointed inner narratives and limited self awareness. As I think about it, so do I, and so, probably, do you. The mental shorthand we employ to connect our thoughts and feelings within our inner narratives is a substrate we're largely unaware of. Lopez's characters' inner lives all seem essentially inchoate, show more cemented together by what they perceive as their unitary identities. While his characters mostly consist of outsiders that wouldn't fit most people's ideas of what "Good People" are, these characters all feel that they are inherently good people. The collection seems unified in tone, with the exception of the last piece, "How to Direct a Major Motion Picture, " which I found to be quite funny. Good People was a short, fun read that left a lasting impression on this reader. show less

Good People is a collection of 20 short stories by Robert Lopez, a gifted writer from Brooklyn, NY. Mostly written as first person narratives, these are very human voices and they don't belong to people that are simply "good". Some are disturbed, some are funny, and some are meandering or fragmented.

Lopez says, “I think of writing, particularly when it comes to first person, as like an acting performance, where you improvise, try different things, assume roles that aren’t you. This is show more one of the great things about writing…I never set out to try something particular when I write. I try to let it happen.” This goal is very evident in these stories. Most do not have a firm sense of place or plot but listening to these voices still has a powerful impact. show less