With a sensibility somewhere between Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, and Franz Kafka, Peter Hempel’s The Jump - Stories for Uncertain Times combines striking writing, dark humor, and a deep sense of irony that can leave readers both shaken and stirred. Drugs, sex, and untimely deaths mix with an elegiac sense of loss of a gentler and more perfect past. The more demented readers in the audience may find themselves laughing out loud as tragedy after tragedy unfolds.
The Jump has something for everyone:
-
“The Jump”: Ernst, a long-time con man, uses the progressive/libertarian “right to die” legislation he has helped pass to create the biggest (and most gruesome) attraction ever at a high-tech amusement park – and then looks for meaning in what he has created.
-
“Rudolph at Rest – A Christmas Story”: An alcoholic Rudolph is living in a reindeer retirement home and is haunted by the loss of Santa and the magical world he had known.
-
“Meine Yiddishe Barbie”: A blonde haired, blue-eyed, pink mini-skirted, totally shiksa Barbie becomes a birthday present for a young Jewish girl preparing for her bat mitzvah.
-
“A Question for the Rabbi”: Aaron, an illustrator at a fashion magazine, discovers that the small green growth on his foot is the unstoppable shoot of an apple tree.
-
“Would You Die for Me?”: Abe, a young professor living in Brooklyn, tries to understand his young girlfriend’s question and what he really wants out of life.
-
“Telling Stories”: Dwayne, a hapless virgin working in a dead-end job at Target, starts up a career writing stories for a porn mag.
-
“Ileana”: David, a transplant from Ohio, finds out if he has what it really takes to be a New Yorker when his apartment is invaded by a band of ominous misfits.
-
“Sweet Dreams, Asshole”: Kyle finds an answer to his crappy job when he meets a questionable doctor who gives him the ultimate feral drug to test.
-
“Fast, Faster, Fastest”: A man tweets out the rigors of his training regimen for a 12-hour Fastathon to Fight Obesity, and documents the constant temptations he faces along the way.
-
“The Book of Eve”: Eve has no use for an Adam who worries about what God thinks.
and more…
The Jump is available in paperback
and Kindle ebook on Amazon.