I didn't expect this collection of short stories to evoke so many emotions in me, from laughter to confusion to sadness and melancholy—a wonderful combination of different wackiness with a touch of absurdity and sharp observations of the modern world. I regret that it ended so quickly, because I could read stories like this endlessly.

Impossible Naked Life by Luke Rolfes is an engaging collection of mixed short stories and flash fiction.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐟𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐬.

For such short stories, several made me emotional, particularly Palestine Boy. What wall is greater than the one he, and his extended family (so far from where he lives), face? There are smart, funny tales beginning with the very first, as Leonard (a hermit crab), meets his gruesome end. Sometimes silly but often grounded, the tales are of pain, struggle, failure, need.

Characters are visitors in the lives of their lovers, there are happy little birds flying around death, and lonely strangers connecting on a train. A tornado threatens as a couple and their child cower, wailing for different reasons. This is a collection about ordinary people, those who might cheer for a T-Rex instead of humans, couples who see their love die in a beautiful neighborhood surrounded by beautiful people, and kids who are diving to the bottom of a ball pit where there may or may not be a dead girl. People confront realities that are nothing new, but to the person going through it, can feel life altering, even if it’s ‘a tired story’. Red Line moved me, it’s beautiful that in a city where you think you are invisible you are seen, saved.

Sometimes you need flash fiction to pull you through your longer days. I am hoping Luke Rolfes writes a novel.

Published March 8, 2022

Kallisto gai Press

Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members’ Titles

[4.75]

This was a positively bizarre reading experience. I loved some stories, found some others decent but overall this is a very strong collection, with some powerful stories. Some of my favourites include Impossible Naked Life, Day Camp and Plucked.

As the title suggests, this is a very raw collection, full of emotions with characters who are naked (literally or metaphorically) and something about the short insights into their lives make human existence almost feel impossible. Impossibly sad but also impossibly beautiful.

I would recommend this short story collection to anyone soul-searching, to anyone who wants to read stories that feel very personal, with diverse narrators and main characters bursting with life, who love and suffer and cry. I truly loved this.

Very difficult to follow, with not much of a storyline and highly unsympathetic characters. Do yourself a favor and save your money.

Impossible Naked Life left me a bit unsure in the end. This is probably an inherent problem of short story collections, some of them are always going to connect more with the reader than others. Unfortunately, most of them did not work for me, because they were too short to feel engaged in the story and with its characters. The book is divided in 4 parts and the last one was definitely my favorite with stronger themes and engaging plot. For fans of short stories that like quick narratives this might be a good one to check out.

1/5

I'm not sure if this just wasn't the right book for me but nothing about the writing of it makes me want to give it the benefit of doubt either. I like books that are surrealist in nature but here, a lot of times I am left wondering what function, if any, the surreal elements have. A lot of the stories felt jarring for the sake of being jarring; while I don't think an author is supposed to (or should) lay everything out for the reader, I think if a reader is left questioning the meaning behind everything they've read...it's a bit much.

I'm also not a fan of the way Rolfes has written women in this collection. I can't really put a finger on the reason. It's not that they feel like caricatures or anything. It's just that, for a book where discerning purpose and meaning has been so hard, the women sure feel like nothing but narrative tools.

The first section of this collection offers characters who are “so strange,” as a train rider in “”Pluck” says. It’s as if, says the eponymous Paperboy of another tale, they “all lived somewhere in between these two rivers, cut off in every direction.” Strange as they are, their quirky selves and tales made me smile. The second section made me think as well as smile for these stories deal, in ways I appreciate, with political and social issues of importance. They never propagandize, but they—especially “Palestine Boy,” matter. The latter sections hover in both these directions. I must say I much prefer the shorter stories. I think Rolfes is best at these quick hits rather than extended plots. All told, though, “Impossible Naked Life”—BTW the nakedness of the male torso is a recurring trope—is quite an engaging book.

Enjoyable, with bits of tongue-in-cheek humor. The stories are short so you can fly right through them.
Some have a great spin on everyday life, things we don't think about because it feels natural.
Definitely worth a read.