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An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life
'Voyeuristically addictive, funny, and deceptively simple' Halle Butler, author of The New Me
Whether working in food service or in high-end retail, lit by a laptop in a sex chat or by the camera of an acclaimed film director, or sharing a flat in the city or a holiday rental in Mallorca, the protagonists of the nine stories comprising Paul Dalla Rosa's debut collection navigate the spaces between aspiration and delusion, ambition and aimlessness, the curated profile and the unreliable body.
By turns unsparing and tender, Dalla Rosa explores our lives in late-stage Capitalism, where globalisation and its false promises of connectivity leave us further alienated and disenfranchised. Like the legendary Lucia Berlin and his contemporary Ottessa Mossfegh, Dalla Rosa is a masterful observer-and hilarious eviscerator-of our ugly, beautiful attempts at finding meaning in an ugly, beautiful world.
Whether working in food service or in high-end retail, lit by a laptop in a sex chat or by the camera of an acclaimed film director, or sharing a flat in the city or a holiday rental in Mallorca, the protagonists of the nine stories comprising Paul Dalla Rosa's debut collection navigate the spaces between aspiration and delusion, ambition and aimlessness, the curated profile and the unreliable body.
By turns unsparing and tender, Dalla Rosa explores our lives in late-stage Capitalism, where globalisation and its false promises of connectivity leave us further alienated and disenfranchised. Like the legendary Lucia Berlin and his contemporary Ottessa Mossfegh, Dalla Rosa is a masterful observer-and hilarious eviscerator-of our ugly, beautiful attempts at finding meaning in an ugly, beautiful world.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published May 31, 2022
35 people are currently reading
1916 people want to read
About the author
Paul Dalla Rosa
8books15followersPaul Dalla Rosa is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. His work has appeared in ѳɱԱ’s, Meanjin and NY Tyrant.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
July 2, 2024
‘My father would also tell me about my future. He texted my birthdate and his credit card details to a psychic hotline that did readings on late-night television.
Today, my father wrote, 'It isn't great.' The stars indicated I was under the influence of an inverted Mars, which meant I could act like a body possessed.�
Paul Dalla Rosa's collection of stories offer a captivating journey into the depths of human experience. From the very first page, readers are drawn into a world where ordinary lives intersect with extraordinary circumstances. Dalla Rosa has a remarkable ability to breathe life into his characters, making them feel like old friends or intriguing strangers encountered on a journey.
Each story is a gem, polished to perfection with exquisite attention to detail. Whether it's a tale of love lost and found, a poignant exploration of grief, or a thrilling adventure through the labyrinth of the mind, Dalla Rosa's writing is evocative, immersive and has a type of voyeuristic quality to it.
As I turned the pages I found myself completely absorbed in each tale, eager to discover where Dalla Rosa would lead me next.
Whether you're a seasoned literary enthusiast or a casual reader in search of a captivating escape, this collection is sure to leave a lasting impression. In the hands of Paul Dalla Rosa, the inner life becomes a landscape of wonder, ripe for exploration and boundless in its possibilities.
I Highly Recommend.
4.5
Today, my father wrote, 'It isn't great.' The stars indicated I was under the influence of an inverted Mars, which meant I could act like a body possessed.�
Paul Dalla Rosa's collection of stories offer a captivating journey into the depths of human experience. From the very first page, readers are drawn into a world where ordinary lives intersect with extraordinary circumstances. Dalla Rosa has a remarkable ability to breathe life into his characters, making them feel like old friends or intriguing strangers encountered on a journey.
Each story is a gem, polished to perfection with exquisite attention to detail. Whether it's a tale of love lost and found, a poignant exploration of grief, or a thrilling adventure through the labyrinth of the mind, Dalla Rosa's writing is evocative, immersive and has a type of voyeuristic quality to it.
As I turned the pages I found myself completely absorbed in each tale, eager to discover where Dalla Rosa would lead me next.
Whether you're a seasoned literary enthusiast or a casual reader in search of a captivating escape, this collection is sure to leave a lasting impression. In the hands of Paul Dalla Rosa, the inner life becomes a landscape of wonder, ripe for exploration and boundless in its possibilities.
I Highly Recommend.
4.5
November 25, 2022
An interesting collection of short stories shining a light on modern society but it’s so depressing!
Soul crushing low paid jobs, social isolation, loneliness, alienation, pointless consumerism, living on credit cards, drugs, impersonal sex, superficial relationships, boredom, disappointment, crushed dreams and so on. There is some dark humour (eg one character goes into a toilet cubicle to do his drugs, panics because he thinks a cop is banging on the door, turns out he’s in the womens loo) but mostly all I could think as I was reading this was : modern life is rubbish. Great cover though.
Soul crushing low paid jobs, social isolation, loneliness, alienation, pointless consumerism, living on credit cards, drugs, impersonal sex, superficial relationships, boredom, disappointment, crushed dreams and so on. There is some dark humour (eg one character goes into a toilet cubicle to do his drugs, panics because he thinks a cop is banging on the door, turns out he’s in the womens loo) but mostly all I could think as I was reading this was : modern life is rubbish. Great cover though.
June 12, 2022
Paul Dalla Rosa writes the kind of characters that stay in your head and keep narrating your life after you’ve put the book down. The recently ubiquitous Short Story Tone of Voice � flat, affectless, unsentimental � is something I’ve complained about when reading other collections (such as Out There), but its full potential is realised here. In Dalla Rosa’s fiction, the characters always retain a charming vulnerability even as they speak, or are spoken about, dispassionately. (There’s also something much more entertaining about that tone when narrators use it to say things like ‘I wanted to swallow a thousand dicks, ten thousand dicks�.)
From the start, the Voice works so well that I expected the stories with first-person narrators to be my favourites, and indeed, some of them are incredibly effective: opener ‘The Hardest Thing�, about a lonely young man trying to scratch a living in Dubai; ‘Comme�, following the anguished manager of a high-fashion store; ‘The Fame�, in which a delusionally ambitious guy tries to make it as a dancer on the Gold Coast. (This last reminded me a lot of Ottessa Moshfegh’s ‘Malibu�; I liked Inner Life overall better than Homesick For Another World, but if you loved one you’d probably at least like the other.) But my actual favourite from the book was, unexpectedly, ‘Contact�, about a woman working in a call centre � which I know doesn’t sound like much; it’s just so perfectly crafted, written in pared-back segments, brilliant at the sentence level, funny. I was also surprised at how much I enjoyed ‘In Bright Light�, as it � being about an LA-based actress reckoning with the fallout of her involvement in a scandal � feels like something of a departure from the rest.
In some cases it’s a particular detail that stands out: the coke incident in ‘I Feel It�, the theft in ‘Life Coach�, the narrator realising it’s Cyndi’s house in ‘An MFA story�. There’s something to love in almost every story, and a lot of things � scenes, lines, some sense of an atmosphere � that I think I’ll remember. (Especially the idea of banishing a depressing thought by thinking about hamsters.)
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From the start, the Voice works so well that I expected the stories with first-person narrators to be my favourites, and indeed, some of them are incredibly effective: opener ‘The Hardest Thing�, about a lonely young man trying to scratch a living in Dubai; ‘Comme�, following the anguished manager of a high-fashion store; ‘The Fame�, in which a delusionally ambitious guy tries to make it as a dancer on the Gold Coast. (This last reminded me a lot of Ottessa Moshfegh’s ‘Malibu�; I liked Inner Life overall better than Homesick For Another World, but if you loved one you’d probably at least like the other.) But my actual favourite from the book was, unexpectedly, ‘Contact�, about a woman working in a call centre � which I know doesn’t sound like much; it’s just so perfectly crafted, written in pared-back segments, brilliant at the sentence level, funny. I was also surprised at how much I enjoyed ‘In Bright Light�, as it � being about an LA-based actress reckoning with the fallout of her involvement in a scandal � feels like something of a departure from the rest.
In some cases it’s a particular detail that stands out: the coke incident in ‘I Feel It�, the theft in ‘Life Coach�, the narrator realising it’s Cyndi’s house in ‘An MFA story�. There’s something to love in almost every story, and a lot of things � scenes, lines, some sense of an atmosphere � that I think I’ll remember. (Especially the idea of banishing a depressing thought by thinking about hamsters.)
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June 28, 2022
After I read “An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life�, I stopped and thought about each of the short stories that Paul Dalla Rosa delivered. Even though each story was different, and centred around totally different people, places and circumstances, they all offered insight into anguished minds. You experience detachment, and splendidly embarrassing falls from grace. Vulnerability and shame live side by side of each other. Some of the stories and escapades seem like first world problems, but in the eyes of the characters, worlds are imploding.
The inner workings of the minds of the characters in each story were garishly intense and rousing. My two favourites were the observations and experiences of a high end fashion store manager in ‘Comme�: aspirational and dissatisfied with life all at the same time; and ‘Contact�: a woman’s job in a call centre seems full of tedium, self pity and lacking in connection.
Some of the characters seemed so aspirational, yet were so blindly flawed and pretentious in their journeys to achieve this. Stuck in a moment they just could not get out of, many were bleak about what was fulfilling their lives and this was the strength of the writing in this book. Just as you thought there might have been a bright corner ahead, it was just a corner that they seemed to be drawn to. No way out, and for some, that corner was a comfort. Truly an abstract read � give it a go!Thank you Allen and Unwin for the gifted copy.
The inner workings of the minds of the characters in each story were garishly intense and rousing. My two favourites were the observations and experiences of a high end fashion store manager in ‘Comme�: aspirational and dissatisfied with life all at the same time; and ‘Contact�: a woman’s job in a call centre seems full of tedium, self pity and lacking in connection.
Some of the characters seemed so aspirational, yet were so blindly flawed and pretentious in their journeys to achieve this. Stuck in a moment they just could not get out of, many were bleak about what was fulfilling their lives and this was the strength of the writing in this book. Just as you thought there might have been a bright corner ahead, it was just a corner that they seemed to be drawn to. No way out, and for some, that corner was a comfort. Truly an abstract read � give it a go!Thank you Allen and Unwin for the gifted copy.
June 17, 2022
I can't say I fully get the hype on this one.
Of the ten stories in this collection, the one I liked best was "An MFA Story". Even so, I felt it shared some of the issues plaguing this collection in general - a kind of insistent blankness, inconclusiveness, and moral and emotional vacancy that left me feeling that the only idea being conveyed was that contemporary life is lonely and unfulfilling, and nobody is happy.
I realise that is most likely the point and is what some readers will love about these stories. I'm not opposed to that style or that message, but it comes to feel a little one-note here. None of these narrators/protagonists ever really descend into true unlikeability, vulnerability, or even take action. They are each passive, lost, amoral and disengaged. They think about money and things and fame, they don't understand other people, they do nothing, and the stories end with this largely unchanged. Perhaps they are taken advantage of, or they make a mistake or lose a job or some money. These events however never seem to have any impact, on the character or their world, or on me as a reader.
Comparisons to Ottessa Moshfegh abound, but Moshfegh lets her characters fully go there, they cross horrible lines, they invite you into their perceptions of reality and you have to be there, often squirming, wishing you didn't know so much about this person's thoughts, perhaps wishing you didn't find it perversely relatable. There's also joy and beauty in her stories, even love. That's not the case here. Dalla Rosa writes well, but the style and voice are uniform across the stories and the characters' psychologies are also very similar. There is no joy, no transcendence, no moment of falling in love or even wishing to, no grace, no grief, no intimacy, no true desperation. I find this to be a little unimaginative, lazy. Those things which are terrible and blank and unfulfilling about our world are obvious, I don't need fiction to tell me that.
Additionally, Moshfegh is very funny, but in these stories there was (for me) nary a chuckle.
3ish stars for the nice writing and the genuine talent I see here, but overall I was pretty disappointed.
Of the ten stories in this collection, the one I liked best was "An MFA Story". Even so, I felt it shared some of the issues plaguing this collection in general - a kind of insistent blankness, inconclusiveness, and moral and emotional vacancy that left me feeling that the only idea being conveyed was that contemporary life is lonely and unfulfilling, and nobody is happy.
I realise that is most likely the point and is what some readers will love about these stories. I'm not opposed to that style or that message, but it comes to feel a little one-note here. None of these narrators/protagonists ever really descend into true unlikeability, vulnerability, or even take action. They are each passive, lost, amoral and disengaged. They think about money and things and fame, they don't understand other people, they do nothing, and the stories end with this largely unchanged. Perhaps they are taken advantage of, or they make a mistake or lose a job or some money. These events however never seem to have any impact, on the character or their world, or on me as a reader.
Comparisons to Ottessa Moshfegh abound, but Moshfegh lets her characters fully go there, they cross horrible lines, they invite you into their perceptions of reality and you have to be there, often squirming, wishing you didn't know so much about this person's thoughts, perhaps wishing you didn't find it perversely relatable. There's also joy and beauty in her stories, even love. That's not the case here. Dalla Rosa writes well, but the style and voice are uniform across the stories and the characters' psychologies are also very similar. There is no joy, no transcendence, no moment of falling in love or even wishing to, no grace, no grief, no intimacy, no true desperation. I find this to be a little unimaginative, lazy. Those things which are terrible and blank and unfulfilling about our world are obvious, I don't need fiction to tell me that.
Additionally, Moshfegh is very funny, but in these stories there was (for me) nary a chuckle.
3ish stars for the nice writing and the genuine talent I see here, but overall I was pretty disappointed.
June 12, 2022
3.5 Stars.
An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life was a decent debut collection of short stories. Dalla Rosa is clearly a big Ottessa Moshfegh fan (and so am I), so the stories felt familiar and were nice reads. They are able to capture the complex psychology of the narrators within a short space, while also focusing on issues such as late-stage capitalism. However, Dalla Rosa tried slightly too hard to imitate the Moshfeghian way of writing that it collapsed on itself in some stories (namely, The Hard Thing, Comme, Charlie in High Definition and Contact), and made the prose read mechanically in my opinion. Despite this, there were some knock-out stories in this collection (Short Stack, The Fame, An MFA Story and Life Coach ). I wish that Dalla Rosa had stuck to this style as it greatly suited their voice and style. The other stories in this collection (I Feel It and In Bright Light) were pretty good but they weren't written to the level of the previous four I mentioned. My main issue with Dalla Rosa's writing across all stories is overusing the characters' names in place of a pronoun, which would've made for stronger and tighter prose. I would still highly recommend this collection as it would work better for others, and I will definitely be on the lookout for what they publish next.
An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life was a decent debut collection of short stories. Dalla Rosa is clearly a big Ottessa Moshfegh fan (and so am I), so the stories felt familiar and were nice reads. They are able to capture the complex psychology of the narrators within a short space, while also focusing on issues such as late-stage capitalism. However, Dalla Rosa tried slightly too hard to imitate the Moshfeghian way of writing that it collapsed on itself in some stories (namely, The Hard Thing, Comme, Charlie in High Definition and Contact), and made the prose read mechanically in my opinion. Despite this, there were some knock-out stories in this collection (Short Stack, The Fame, An MFA Story and Life Coach ). I wish that Dalla Rosa had stuck to this style as it greatly suited their voice and style. The other stories in this collection (I Feel It and In Bright Light) were pretty good but they weren't written to the level of the previous four I mentioned. My main issue with Dalla Rosa's writing across all stories is overusing the characters' names in place of a pronoun, which would've made for stronger and tighter prose. I would still highly recommend this collection as it would work better for others, and I will definitely be on the lookout for what they publish next.
April 10, 2022
I had read some of these stories elsewhere but reading them together it was clear they belonged in this beautiful collection. Dalla Rosa has a gloriously deadpan delivery and his stories are sharp and clever and funny but perfectly balanced with just the right amount of sincerity and heart. My favourite stories revolved around terrible jobs and demonic cats. The prose is crisp and clipped and only ever working to reveal truths about these characters and work, sex and love. Think early George Saunders. Beautiful. Surprising. Alive.
May 25, 2022
paul dalla rosa is a genius. his lines are so wickedly perfect and funny that they genuinely make me laugh (not just sharply exhale air in amusement!)
June 10, 2022
I was hoping this would be akin to Ottessa Moshfegh's short stories with a queer point of view, and while it has those elements, only the first four (out of ten) stories really felt fresh and exciting. Dalla Rosa is a promising writer, and I'll certainly be looking out for his next writing. But I was simply left wanting a little bit more from this collection. More darkness, more oddity, more gay. 3.5/5
June 4, 2022
Bone dry, cutting, and effortlessly witty depictions of what it means to live and work and fuck now. Filled with ennui but free from self-pity or indulgence.
February 7, 2023
About halfway through An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life, I thought to myself, gosh, this reminds me of My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I haven't read much Moshfegh, but MYORAR was a recent read, and clearly still at the forefront of my mind. I then flipped AEAVIL (at some point, one has to wonder: do these acronyms make reviews more or less legible?) over to read the blurb, which likened author Paul Dalla Rosa to Ottessa Moshfegh.
I think, more likely than either of these two authors having miraculously tapped into some hitherto unidentified (but ubiquitously felt and ultimate) truth, these feelings - alienation, disconnection, disenfranchisement - are the inevitable result of late-stage capitalism. Much of the global population is struggling with them. (I'd recommend brushing up on socialist theory - it probably won't help, but it will at least allow you to feel justified in your anger.)
Still, there's something powerful in having those feelings captured so vividly, especially in fiction. It's arresting. My favourite stories in this collection were Comme, Short Stack, Charlie in High Definition, The Fame, Contact, An MFA Story, and Life Coach - I'm pleased to report, most of them! I also enjoyed that many of these stories featured male (and gay) protagonists. Overall, I felt this collection slotted neatly into that specific genre of hot-girl lit-fic popularised by authors like Sally Rooney, so this was an interesting subversion. The Australian setting and voice was also so appreciated. 4.5 stars - I would love to read more from Paul Dalla Rosa!
I think, more likely than either of these two authors having miraculously tapped into some hitherto unidentified (but ubiquitously felt and ultimate) truth, these feelings - alienation, disconnection, disenfranchisement - are the inevitable result of late-stage capitalism. Much of the global population is struggling with them. (I'd recommend brushing up on socialist theory - it probably won't help, but it will at least allow you to feel justified in your anger.)
Still, there's something powerful in having those feelings captured so vividly, especially in fiction. It's arresting. My favourite stories in this collection were Comme, Short Stack, Charlie in High Definition, The Fame, Contact, An MFA Story, and Life Coach - I'm pleased to report, most of them! I also enjoyed that many of these stories featured male (and gay) protagonists. Overall, I felt this collection slotted neatly into that specific genre of hot-girl lit-fic popularised by authors like Sally Rooney, so this was an interesting subversion. The Australian setting and voice was also so appreciated. 4.5 stars - I would love to read more from Paul Dalla Rosa!
June 24, 2022
An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life is the debut short story collection of Melbourne writer Paul Dalla Rosa. I do love a short story collection and so jumped at the chance to pick this one up.
The ten stories that make up the collection are different but linked by the same tone of writing as well as the same feeling of hopelessness, loneliness and regret that each of the narrators exude. Dalla Rosa has quite a deadpan, flat delivery and each story focuses on the unhappy lives of people with awful jobs or no money. They are mostly queer stories, quite dark and at times oddly funny. Though in some there is more an element of sadness and ennui like in Short Stack when Pancake Saloon employee Sam lives out his days avoiding debt collectors, stuffing up at work and pouring money into watching ShyGuy18’s webcam. One of the funnier ones was Charlie in High Definition, where Emma and Dan’s cat turns psychotic and attacks their flatmate resulting in an online appointment with a cat behavioural specialist!
Overall I really enjoyed reading these weird though mildly depressing stories. I’ll be watching to see what the author does next.
Thank you to @allenandunwin for my #gifted copy.
The ten stories that make up the collection are different but linked by the same tone of writing as well as the same feeling of hopelessness, loneliness and regret that each of the narrators exude. Dalla Rosa has quite a deadpan, flat delivery and each story focuses on the unhappy lives of people with awful jobs or no money. They are mostly queer stories, quite dark and at times oddly funny. Though in some there is more an element of sadness and ennui like in Short Stack when Pancake Saloon employee Sam lives out his days avoiding debt collectors, stuffing up at work and pouring money into watching ShyGuy18’s webcam. One of the funnier ones was Charlie in High Definition, where Emma and Dan’s cat turns psychotic and attacks their flatmate resulting in an online appointment with a cat behavioural specialist!
Overall I really enjoyed reading these weird though mildly depressing stories. I’ll be watching to see what the author does next.
Thank you to @allenandunwin for my #gifted copy.
January 12, 2023
Favourite stories: “Comme� & “An MFA story�
July 3, 2022
These stories are like soulless apartments. The ones with cheap fittings and use of space designed without humans in mind. The ones that are described in listings as "investments". There are many such dwellings in these stories - in Dubai, New York, Melbourne, the Gold Coast. They are a symbol of Paul Dalla Rossa's preoccupation with what you might call late-stage capitalism. Here it's not so much a decay as a hardening, a smoothing, a removal of resistance as the minutiae of people's lives becomes determined by the cold logic of markets and consumption, the replacement of organic flesh with synthetics and binary code. I think you could even make the case that they are set entirely in a simulation. Read more on my .
July 13, 2022
The one star is only because this book does not align with my world views. I guess I'm a die-hard optimist at heart, but the world the characters live in, their miserable takes on everything, their lack of autonomy, is frustrating and alien.
October 18, 2022
I liked the modern ideas and themes in this book but the execution wasn't very good. I didn't like the authors writing style and the book felt very monotonous, formulaic, and like all the stories were the same.
November 7, 2022
How the f&^^* did this piece of mundane drivel get published ???
The stories were repetitious and basically BORING.
I feel bad critiquing anybody who composes a book. BUT this was JUST RUBBISH !!
DNF [six stories were MORE than enough]
The stories were repetitious and basically BORING.
I feel bad critiquing anybody who composes a book. BUT this was JUST RUBBISH !!
DNF [six stories were MORE than enough]
June 7, 2022
A fantastic short story collection, three words I'd use to describe An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life are perceptive, candid and humorous. While each story is different and takes you from Dubai to Melbourne to NYC, each protagonist has this relatable sense of being stuck. Whether they're stuck in their job, in a shitty situation or in an apartment due to their demonic cat (sources tell me this is based on a true story 😬). Infused with dry wit, while each protagonist has their flaws, they are never boring. I enjoyed seeing where each story ventured.
Thank you Paul for the proof copy!
Thank you Paul for the proof copy!
April 25, 2024
One of my favourite reads of the year so far. There might come a day where I try to discover the psychology behind why reading a well written book that makes me feel totally unsettled the whole time is a vibe for me, but today is not that day. Would highly recommend for lovers of Ottessa Moshfegh, people who like to be left wanting more and people who are content to be confronted with themes of alienation, hopelessness and loneliness in a global late stage capitalist world.
April 26, 2022
Paul Dalla Rosa’s story collection is magnificent.
July 11, 2022
3.5 stars. Some good stories in there. Am just not a fan of the short-story format. I would probably read a full novel from this author, though.
July 12, 2022
Nice to finally see some gay evil on the page. Depressing and funny.
Read
February 26, 2023Not for me
July 2, 2023
2.5 stars - 2 or 3 of these were decent but the rest were neither exciting nor vivid oops
August 5, 2024
Modern life is rubbish
July 31, 2022
Exquisite!!
April 7, 2023
Changing from three stars to two stars because goodreads is talking about “because you enjoyed An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life”…who, me?
July 12, 2023
I don't enjoy feeling seen and heard.
January 25, 2025
Each short story made me feel a different emotion. Some made me sweat more while reading this in a dry summer day or even a little bit sad. Such a fun book!
January 15, 2023
Not at all exciting or vivid.
Each short story focused on someone who was living the polar opposite of an exciting & vivid life.
I am glad to return this book.
Each short story focused on someone who was living the polar opposite of an exciting & vivid life.
I am glad to return this book.
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