A powerful short story collection that charts the yearning inherent in
imperfect lives.
Winner of the American Fiction Award for Short Story Fiction by the
American Book Fest
"I'm a seeker," the narrator of "My Life as a Mystic" says. "A watcher
of the skies. A pilgrim and a wanderer. I don't know, I couldn't stand
law school." Such are the polar sentiments of the characters in the
stories of David Borofka's A Longing for Impossible Things, which
charts the yearning inherent in imperfect lives.
Taking their cue from Fernando Pessoa's "painful landscape" of longing
for the impossible, the ministers and missionaries of "Fire" and
"Coincidence" look for more than what they find in their respective
theologies; they reject what they've been told in favor of what they
feel. Meanwhile, everyday believers fall back upon their own intuition
and pray for revelation to be forthcoming. Lovers are forced to
recognize the finite limitations of their grand infatuations even as
they hope for some small measure of long-lasting tenderness, while
teenagers resign themselves to the inevitable disappointments of adult
life, recognizing the threats that exist in a future that is yet to
unfold. And, as the narrator of "Attachments for the Platonically
Inclined" says in the context of a 300 game in bowling, "I can't help
but be reminded of perfection when perfection was difficult to find. And
impossible to hold onto. Reminded that there are moments when everything
works as it is supposed to, a harmony beyond applause or appreciation
from others."
