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Esther Stories
Peter Orner explores the impact of life’s essential moments, those brief but far-reaching occasions that haunt his characters. The discovery of a crime, a theatrical performance in a small town, or the recollection of a cruel wartime decision are equally affecting in Orner’s vivid scenarios. Esther Stories is divided into four distinct parts, each with its own momentum. The first half of the book concerns the lives of unrelated strangers, and the second introduces two Jewish families, one on the East Coast, the other in the Midwest.
These stories cover considerable geographic ground — from Nova Scotia to Mississippi, from Fall River, Massachusetts, to Chicago — but the real territory is emotional. As the narrator of the title story tries to piece together his late aunt Esther’s life from the fragments of stories told about her, he remembers what she told him in a dark kitchen when he was a child: “You pay for everything. When you think you’re getting something for free — remember this — you’ll pay later.” All thirty-two wide-ranging pieces — funny or sorrowful, urban or rural, simple or innovative — are welcome additions to the art of the story.
These stories cover considerable geographic ground — from Nova Scotia to Mississippi, from Fall River, Massachusetts, to Chicago — but the real territory is emotional. As the narrator of the title story tries to piece together his late aunt Esther’s life from the fragments of stories told about her, he remembers what she told him in a dark kitchen when he was a child: “You pay for everything. When you think you’re getting something for free — remember this — you’ll pay later.” All thirty-two wide-ranging pieces — funny or sorrowful, urban or rural, simple or innovative — are welcome additions to the art of the story.
227 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
Peter Orner
41 books296 followersPeter Orner was born in Chicago and is the author of three novels: Esther Stories (Houghton Mifflin, 2001), The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo (Little, Brown, 2006), and his most recent, Love and Shame and Love (Little, Brown, 2011) which was recently called epic by Daniel Handler, "...epic like Gilgamesh, epic like a guitar solo." (Orner has since bought Gilgamesh and is enjoying it.) Love and Shame and Love is illustrated throughout by his brother Eric Orner, a comic artist and illustrator whose long time independent/alt weekly strip The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green was made into a feature film in 2008. Eric Orner's work is featured this year in Best American Cartoons edited by Alison Bechdel.
A film version of one of Orner's stories, The Raft, is currently in production and stars Ed Asner.
The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a San Francisco Chronicle Best-Seller, won the Bard Fiction Prize. The novel is being translated into French, Dutch, Italian, and German. The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo is set in Namibia where Orner lived and worked in the early 1990's.
Esther Stories was awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction, and was a Finalist for the Pen Hemingway Award and the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award.
Orner is also the editor of two non-fiction books, Underground America (2008) and Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives (co-editor Annie Holmes, 2010), both published by McSweeney's/ Voice of Witness, an imprint devoted to using oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. Harper's Magazine wrote, "Hope Deferred might be the most important publication out of Zimbabwe in the past thirty years."
Orner has published fiction in the Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, McSweeney's, The Southern Review, and various other publications. Stories have been anthologized in Best American Stories and the Pushcart Prize Annual. Orner has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim and Lannan Foundations.
Orner has taught at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop (Visiting Professor, 2011), University of Montana (William Kittredge Visting Writer, 2009), the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College (2009) Washington University (Visiting Hurst Professor, 2008), Bard College (Bard Fiction Prize Fellowship, 2007), Miami University (Visting Professor, 2002), Charles University in Prague (Visting Law Faculty, 2000). Orner is a long time permanent faculty member at San Francisco State where he is an associate professor. He would like to divide his time between a lot of places, especially San Francisco and Chicago.
A film version of one of Orner's stories, The Raft, is currently in production and stars Ed Asner.
The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a San Francisco Chronicle Best-Seller, won the Bard Fiction Prize. The novel is being translated into French, Dutch, Italian, and German. The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo is set in Namibia where Orner lived and worked in the early 1990's.
Esther Stories was awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction, and was a Finalist for the Pen Hemingway Award and the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award.
Orner is also the editor of two non-fiction books, Underground America (2008) and Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives (co-editor Annie Holmes, 2010), both published by McSweeney's/ Voice of Witness, an imprint devoted to using oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. Harper's Magazine wrote, "Hope Deferred might be the most important publication out of Zimbabwe in the past thirty years."
Orner has published fiction in the Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, McSweeney's, The Southern Review, and various other publications. Stories have been anthologized in Best American Stories and the Pushcart Prize Annual. Orner has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim and Lannan Foundations.
Orner has taught at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop (Visiting Professor, 2011), University of Montana (William Kittredge Visting Writer, 2009), the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College (2009) Washington University (Visiting Hurst Professor, 2008), Bard College (Bard Fiction Prize Fellowship, 2007), Miami University (Visting Professor, 2002), Charles University in Prague (Visting Law Faculty, 2000). Orner is a long time permanent faculty member at San Francisco State where he is an associate professor. He would like to divide his time between a lot of places, especially San Francisco and Chicago.
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January 31, 2026
QUEL CHE RESTA
Questa volta la teoria dell’iceberg di Hemingway è spinta all’esasperazione: il sommerso sale al 99%, e quell’uno per cento che appare è fatto di epifanie, pennellate, misteri non svelati, appunti, distillati, cammei, sottrazioni, flash, fotogrammi, dettagli, particolari, suoni, odori, elementi raccolti … più che storie, o anche solo di parti di storie.
Oppure potrei dire che il non detto batte il rivelato 10 a zero.
Questo vuol dire che al lettore è richiesto ben oltre che riempire gli spazi vuoti e collegare i puntini.
E dato che non si parla di racconti se non si tira in ballo Carver, direi che in questo caso più che di una cattedrale, siamo in presenza di una cappella.
No man is an island. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
Sette anni per scrivere trentaquattro racconti. Alcuni di una pagina sola.
Orner sembra prefiggersi la brevità, e i suoi estimatori affermeranno sicuramente che nella brevità dà il meglio di sé.
Dimostra uno spiccato gusto per i nomi: vengono citati luoghi, parentele, nomi di persone e fatti con un gusto quasi enciclopedico.
In queste storie non compaiono cellulari, neppure il Dow Jones, non ci sono S.U.V. e non si parla di global warming.
L’uso del tempo è spregiudicato, con continui spostamenti avanti e indietro.
I personaggi ritornano in storie diverse, in modo da formare quasi il ritratto di un paese, o di una famiglia, oppure di un periodo. Quasi a suggerire la trama di un romanzo.
Le chiusure delle storie sono a volte illuminanti.
Questa volta la teoria dell’iceberg di Hemingway è spinta all’esasperazione: il sommerso sale al 99%, e quell’uno per cento che appare è fatto di epifanie, pennellate, misteri non svelati, appunti, distillati, cammei, sottrazioni, flash, fotogrammi, dettagli, particolari, suoni, odori, elementi raccolti … più che storie, o anche solo di parti di storie.
Oppure potrei dire che il non detto batte il rivelato 10 a zero.
Questo vuol dire che al lettore è richiesto ben oltre che riempire gli spazi vuoti e collegare i puntini.
E dato che non si parla di racconti se non si tira in ballo Carver, direi che in questo caso più che di una cattedrale, siamo in presenza di una cappella.
No man is an island. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
Sette anni per scrivere trentaquattro racconti. Alcuni di una pagina sola.
Orner sembra prefiggersi la brevità, e i suoi estimatori affermeranno sicuramente che nella brevità dà il meglio di sé.
Dimostra uno spiccato gusto per i nomi: vengono citati luoghi, parentele, nomi di persone e fatti con un gusto quasi enciclopedico.
In queste storie non compaiono cellulari, neppure il Dow Jones, non ci sono S.U.V. e non si parla di global warming.
L’uso del tempo è spregiudicato, con continui spostamenti avanti e indietro.
I personaggi ritornano in storie diverse, in modo da formare quasi il ritratto di un paese, o di una famiglia, oppure di un periodo. Quasi a suggerire la trama di un romanzo.
Le chiusure delle storie sono a volte illuminanti.
June 27, 2013
This collection has been reissued with a foreword by Marilynne Robinson. I'm not sure it needed one, the stories and depth of the characters speak for themselves. Orner is that rare writer who can do it all--write beautiful prose without being affected, begin and end well, capture wonderful moments--original and banal--create spot-on dialog, but most of all, his powerful human observation zeroes in on excruciatingly perceptive human characteristics. "I've had enough of my own blind sides to know that while it may be easy to clear away the wreckage, it's much harder to stop fingering your scars." This is what he does so well, fingers all our scars in transcendent ways. Orner studied with Dubus, and it shows.
June 22, 2013
Re-reading ESTHER STORIES (2001) more than a decade after its original publication, I continue to be astonished by the tender worldliness, quiet passion, understated wisdom, and luminous poetry of Orner's first collection. So does Marilynne Robinson, who provides an insightful "Foreword" to the new paperback edition. These 34 precise and economical stories are dense with details (names, places, dates, smells, tastes), scattered with things--especially with books and photographs, with love's debris. The narrator of the title story looks at a photograph of his Aunt Esther, and sees someone who wants to be seen and not just looked at, "someone [he] would have loved had [he] been there." Orner does not just look at his characters, he sees them, sees their souls, lovingly re-imagines their stories and shares his revelations, his characters' simple, aching stories, with us in language we can understand and remember. These are stories about love and remembrance in America, stories about remembering to love and remembering to remember. These are stories that deserve to be taught in schools, next to stories by Poe and Hawthorne and Malamud and Roth to illustrate the art of short American stories. These are stories that should be shared by families who care about loving and remembering and about knowing each other's stories. And of course they should send you back to Orner's last haunting book, LOVE AND SHAME AND LOVE (2012), and forward to his next and most mature collection so far, LAST CAR OVER THE SAGAMORE BRIDGE (August 2013). One or more of these stories is sure to convince you that Orner has been eavesdropping on your family.
January 14, 2026
La raccolta è divisa in 4 parti.
Le prime 2 sono storie brevissime (anche solo una o due pagine), fotografie d'istanti, istantanee e riuscite.
Nella terza parte le storie girano attorno alla stessa coppia, Walt e Sarah, come se Orner avesse preparato degli sketch per un romanzo che poi non ha scritto.
Questi racconti sono ricchi di fatti e azioni accatastati in fretta l'uno sull'altro. Troppa roba in troppo poco spazio, il tutto risulta confuso e troppo condito.
Poi mi accorgo che la terza parte pare una preparazione o, volendo, una brutta copia, della quarta, dove tutti i racconti girano intorno alla famiglia di Esther. Qua siamo alti, è tutto al posto giusto, tutto dosato e mescolato alla perfezione. Bravo Orner, consigliato.
Le prime 2 sono storie brevissime (anche solo una o due pagine), fotografie d'istanti, istantanee e riuscite.
Nella terza parte le storie girano attorno alla stessa coppia, Walt e Sarah, come se Orner avesse preparato degli sketch per un romanzo che poi non ha scritto.
Questi racconti sono ricchi di fatti e azioni accatastati in fretta l'uno sull'altro. Troppa roba in troppo poco spazio, il tutto risulta confuso e troppo condito.
Poi mi accorgo che la terza parte pare una preparazione o, volendo, una brutta copia, della quarta, dove tutti i racconti girano intorno alla famiglia di Esther. Qua siamo alti, è tutto al posto giusto, tutto dosato e mescolato alla perfezione. Bravo Orner, consigliato.
June 8, 2010
I loved this book. I loved how spare the writing is, and the way a single crucial moment, a turning point in a character's life, a reflection or a memory could illuminate so much about the characters and the meaning of their lives. I rarely read books again, but I'm already thinking I'd like to re-read this one...
October 24, 2013
If you ever meet me in the street, remind me that I love short stories and this book is a great example why.
July 5, 2013
"Esther Stories" by Peter Orner is a marvellous compilation of short stories.
The first parts are a short and seemingly unconnected selection of stories. They were mostly amazing pieces of literature with characters that got me caring and feeling with them more than some entire novels achieve to do. Small snippets of every day life, beautifully told and with a distinct and captivating voice.
As I gave up to look for the connecting thread between the pieces I began to enjoy the stories even more. While I found the first part more melancholic and sentimental overall, the second part brought in more subtle humour. With an emotional and intense collection of stories as this however I was beginning to long for characters and stories that would engage me for longer, which fortunately is exactly what the third part and fourth part did.
Focusing more on reprising characters and showing the life of entire families Orner's unique and characteristic writing style unfolds and is given a chance to exploit more than just glimpses of life, love and loss.
The title of this book is taken from one story, the story of one woman and her unfortunate love life and marriage, as told in snippets at her funeral by the surviving relatives. She is a real character who is seen in different lights as her story is told. This collection of memories here is a good reflection of the richness of stories in the book. She may not be symbolic for the entire novel but she is a great example of the kind of stories Orner longs to tell.
Countless stories that made me think, feel and wonder, too many to mention; this book has a richness that makes it feel as if I had just read a selection of really good novels.
The book deeply touched me with many of its stories, one liners and amazingly set up characters. I tend to read novels only because few writers achieve such a great characterisation and narrative in a short story, but Orner is a particular great example of how easy it can seem to be.
I really loved this book and am heading straight to the book stores for his next work. Esther Stories will remain one of my favourite books.
The first parts are a short and seemingly unconnected selection of stories. They were mostly amazing pieces of literature with characters that got me caring and feeling with them more than some entire novels achieve to do. Small snippets of every day life, beautifully told and with a distinct and captivating voice.
As I gave up to look for the connecting thread between the pieces I began to enjoy the stories even more. While I found the first part more melancholic and sentimental overall, the second part brought in more subtle humour. With an emotional and intense collection of stories as this however I was beginning to long for characters and stories that would engage me for longer, which fortunately is exactly what the third part and fourth part did.
Focusing more on reprising characters and showing the life of entire families Orner's unique and characteristic writing style unfolds and is given a chance to exploit more than just glimpses of life, love and loss.
The title of this book is taken from one story, the story of one woman and her unfortunate love life and marriage, as told in snippets at her funeral by the surviving relatives. She is a real character who is seen in different lights as her story is told. This collection of memories here is a good reflection of the richness of stories in the book. She may not be symbolic for the entire novel but she is a great example of the kind of stories Orner longs to tell.
Countless stories that made me think, feel and wonder, too many to mention; this book has a richness that makes it feel as if I had just read a selection of really good novels.
The book deeply touched me with many of its stories, one liners and amazingly set up characters. I tend to read novels only because few writers achieve such a great characterisation and narrative in a short story, but Orner is a particular great example of how easy it can seem to be.
I really loved this book and am heading straight to the book stores for his next work. Esther Stories will remain one of my favourite books.
January 10, 2014
It's really tempting to lump Orner in with the grand tradition of Chicago writers from Algren to Bellow to Dybek and so forth, but what the hell do I know about Chicago? It's frozen solid at the moment, which was how I experienced it in 1986 when I was sent to book camp at Great Mistakes on the shitty shore of Lake Michigan and haven't been back since. But Orner's writing really does remind me of Nelson Algren, a writer who doesn't get read the way he used to, which is a shame, because his work is much fun to read. His characters are three dimensional and ALIVE, and this is a trait that Orner shares. There are about 40 stories in the collection and they're packed with believable characters without a drop of melodrama to be found. This is especially true of the last quarter of the book: The Waters, a series of stories centered around Esther and her family. I don't know how many multi-generational family sagas I've read but none of them were like this. Reading Esther Stories feels like being let into a family from every angel imaginable and hearing all their family secrets. I love this book. I know I will return to sad, beautiful Esther and her haunting stories again.
September 27, 2014
Fun Fact: Peter Orner is the cartoonist Eric Orner's younger brother. Must run in the family, huh. This is an exceptional collection of short stories about family, memory, love, pain, forgiveness, marriage, life and death - all the important stuff. Each story is exquisitely crafted and finely honed with exceptionally true-to-life dialogue (especially in the Jewish idiom). I recommend taking your time and reading them slowly to let them really sink in. One story in here, "The Raft," was made into a really good short film starring the great Ed Asner that Imdb lists as being from 2014, though Eric Orner (a friend and colleague of mine) sent me a link to watch it I think a couple of years ago (release dates can be a tricky business, I know). At any rate, this gets 4 1/2 out of 5 stars from me, but closer to 5 than 4, so here's the full monty. I look forward to reading more from Orner, both Orners obviously.
April 9, 2020
So many good stories in this collection, but it's the accumulation of the telling, of all the slippery remembered moments that stays with me. The author shifts points of view and works with memory in such an interesting way that I'll be reading this one again. It's hard to believe that this is Orner's first book because it is so wise, so expansively historic.
(Note: Like some of the other reviewers, I tried to read this a few times before, but wasn't able to get into it at first. This time I gave myself time to read several of the early stories in one sitting, and I read the entire book in a few days. It's divided into sections, and it's not until the second part that the links began to fall into place for me.)
(Note: Like some of the other reviewers, I tried to read this a few times before, but wasn't able to get into it at first. This time I gave myself time to read several of the early stories in one sitting, and I read the entire book in a few days. It's divided into sections, and it's not until the second part that the links began to fall into place for me.)
June 14, 2017
Peter Orner's short-shorts are some of the best in the world. I love many, but no one more than "On a Bridge Over the Homochitto." Orner deftly and beautifully captures the post World-War-II world, the trauma and slow renewal of a soldier trying to find his way back to ordinary life. This book is amazing and every fiction writer should get their hands on a copy.
August 22, 2025
I was introduced to this author a few years ago. Reading “Maggie Brown and Others“ led me to purchase several of his other collections, which I perused from time to time. I have learned that is not the way to read Peter Orner. One must jump in and read all of the stories in one section before setting the book aside. So that is what I did here.
In the first section strangers appear often in unusual circumstances, brief moments, which Orner instills something unforgettable within the reader. In one or a few pages, a character emerges, and one must pause to think. It is impossible to turn away. What just happened?
Two sections introduce readers to very different Jewish families, one in the midwest and one in Fall River, a city not too far from where I live. One of the stories, “Esther,” connects to a short story in “Maggie Brown,” exploring family and relationships and loss. I drew a straight line between Esther in this collection and the exiled Israelite in the Bible, which led me to question if strangers and exile and loneliness are the themes I should be paying attention to in Orner’s writing.
His stories are quiet, pure, and often, I feel the experience or setting is familiar to me. Did I know that person, or was he a friend of my family’s? There is this immediacy he conveys, a universality of our collective experiences, certainly compassionate, that touches me and leaves me changed.
In the first section strangers appear often in unusual circumstances, brief moments, which Orner instills something unforgettable within the reader. In one or a few pages, a character emerges, and one must pause to think. It is impossible to turn away. What just happened?
Two sections introduce readers to very different Jewish families, one in the midwest and one in Fall River, a city not too far from where I live. One of the stories, “Esther,” connects to a short story in “Maggie Brown,” exploring family and relationships and loss. I drew a straight line between Esther in this collection and the exiled Israelite in the Bible, which led me to question if strangers and exile and loneliness are the themes I should be paying attention to in Orner’s writing.
His stories are quiet, pure, and often, I feel the experience or setting is familiar to me. Did I know that person, or was he a friend of my family’s? There is this immediacy he conveys, a universality of our collective experiences, certainly compassionate, that touches me and leaves me changed.
January 17, 2012
Depending on your perspective, Peter Orner's debut, Esther Stories, is either a story collection, or one-half story collection and two novellas-in-stories. The "novellas" - Fall River Marriage and The Waters - are the strongest part of the book, and especially the former. Fall River Marriage tells, in fifty brisk pages, the story of Walt and Sarah Kaplan and their forty years together, from their quickie out-of-state marriage (with Sarah three months pregnant at the time) to Walt's early death, at 59, from a heart attack. The brief but vivid stories are almost like photographs of their marriage - funny, touching and sometimes sad. A wonderful piece.
The Waters tries the same approach but is less successful, primarily because the focus is much broader, spanning multiple generations instead of a single married couple. The story is also told by several narrators, making it sometimes difficult to follow who exactly is speaking. I don't think the multi-generation, multi-narrator structure quite works with the minimalist, fragmentary narrative that Orner seems to prefer. And interestingly enough, the story's Chicago setting didn't grab me nearly as much as that of the first piece (Fall River, Massachusetts). I would have thought a Chicago story would have really hit home.
As for the individual stories in the first half of the book, only two really stuck with me - the sad "Cousin Tuck's" (about the doomed relationship of a one-eyed pool shark and a community activist) and the darkly funny "Two Poes" (about a town plagued with two Edgar Allan Poe impersonators, who were hired for tourism promotion and never bothered to leave) - while the others soon faded from memory.
In all, Esther Stories was a worthwhile read, though mostly for Fall River Marriage. Orner has recently published his first novel, Love and Shame and Love, which I now definitely have my eye on.
The Waters tries the same approach but is less successful, primarily because the focus is much broader, spanning multiple generations instead of a single married couple. The story is also told by several narrators, making it sometimes difficult to follow who exactly is speaking. I don't think the multi-generation, multi-narrator structure quite works with the minimalist, fragmentary narrative that Orner seems to prefer. And interestingly enough, the story's Chicago setting didn't grab me nearly as much as that of the first piece (Fall River, Massachusetts). I would have thought a Chicago story would have really hit home.
As for the individual stories in the first half of the book, only two really stuck with me - the sad "Cousin Tuck's" (about the doomed relationship of a one-eyed pool shark and a community activist) and the darkly funny "Two Poes" (about a town plagued with two Edgar Allan Poe impersonators, who were hired for tourism promotion and never bothered to leave) - while the others soon faded from memory.
In all, Esther Stories was a worthwhile read, though mostly for Fall River Marriage. Orner has recently published his first novel, Love and Shame and Love, which I now definitely have my eye on.
May 15, 2015
There are over 30 stories in this book, broken into four parts. The first and second parts are unrelated stories, none more than ten pages long, and most much shorter. I was not drawn by any of the stories in the first part - What Remains - but found those in the second part - The Famous - more enjoyable. I was immediately drawn into the first story in part two - Cousin Tuck's - which concerned a small town with a bar where the known pool shark taught the regulars some tricks and two troubled souls, who may, or may not, have found something good between them.
Part three was the turning point - I loved the related stories in this part about a Jewish family living in Fall River. At the center are Walt and Sarah, who run away and get married in their teens because Sandra is pregnant. Through the stories, not in chronological order, we learn about Walt and Sarah and their marriage. While they love each other deeply, they do never seem to understand each other. Walt reminded me some of the salesman in Death of a Salesman. Sarah, a pillar of the community, was always trying to redeem herself to her mother. I ached for them both.
The stories in part four were also related and told the story of a Jewish family in Chicago. These were different in that they were told as remembrances by a grown grandson - some his own memories, some what he has been told by others. This family is much troubled and haunting.
These are short stories that demand more than one reading. I reread a couple as I was writing this review and there is much more there on second reading that I heard of the first.
And I have to say that the cover of this book captivated me. The woman on the doorstep reminds me of a picture of my mother at the time she was married to my father.
Part three was the turning point - I loved the related stories in this part about a Jewish family living in Fall River. At the center are Walt and Sarah, who run away and get married in their teens because Sandra is pregnant. Through the stories, not in chronological order, we learn about Walt and Sarah and their marriage. While they love each other deeply, they do never seem to understand each other. Walt reminded me some of the salesman in Death of a Salesman. Sarah, a pillar of the community, was always trying to redeem herself to her mother. I ached for them both.
The stories in part four were also related and told the story of a Jewish family in Chicago. These were different in that they were told as remembrances by a grown grandson - some his own memories, some what he has been told by others. This family is much troubled and haunting.
These are short stories that demand more than one reading. I reread a couple as I was writing this review and there is much more there on second reading that I heard of the first.
And I have to say that the cover of this book captivated me. The woman on the doorstep reminds me of a picture of my mother at the time she was married to my father.
December 6, 2013
Sort of a paradox here for me. These are lovely stories for the most part, and exceptionally well-crafted, but somehow it still took me two weeks to read a relatively short book. I can't figure out why I was so able to keep putting it down, but am inclined to conclude it was more about me than about the book.
There is a feeling of 1940's theatrical history here, I think. These are the stories or ordinary people doing everyday things. On occasion exceptional events result from these unexceptional situations, but the air of ordinariness still pervades almost all of the stories. There are also no heroes, and I can't think of a single character I actually liked in any story, nor, for than matter, any I especially disliked.
When I finished the book, I had a sense that about half of it relates to the title,stories about Esther or people connected with her. On looking it over to write these comments, though, I realized that the last half involved sets of stories about two different families. Rather than integrating effectively for me, the stories sort of blurred, leaving me with that misinterpretation of the structure of the book.
The strength of the stories, Esther-related or not, is their meticulous recording of small normal things, and a remarkable ear for dialogue. I guess the downside is that for me there were few, if any, peaks and valleys, and I also had some trouble keeping all the characters in the Esther stories sorted out. Undoubtedly my problem, though. I think this is probably a very fine book with which I never connected they way I would have preferred.
There is a feeling of 1940's theatrical history here, I think. These are the stories or ordinary people doing everyday things. On occasion exceptional events result from these unexceptional situations, but the air of ordinariness still pervades almost all of the stories. There are also no heroes, and I can't think of a single character I actually liked in any story, nor, for than matter, any I especially disliked.
When I finished the book, I had a sense that about half of it relates to the title,stories about Esther or people connected with her. On looking it over to write these comments, though, I realized that the last half involved sets of stories about two different families. Rather than integrating effectively for me, the stories sort of blurred, leaving me with that misinterpretation of the structure of the book.
The strength of the stories, Esther-related or not, is their meticulous recording of small normal things, and a remarkable ear for dialogue. I guess the downside is that for me there were few, if any, peaks and valleys, and I also had some trouble keeping all the characters in the Esther stories sorted out. Undoubtedly my problem, though. I think this is probably a very fine book with which I never connected they way I would have preferred.
May 2, 2010
To risk alienating those of you who don't watch British TV, Peter Orner's sharp and glowing Esther Stories are Tardis-like: just as Doctor Who's police-box spacecraft appears small from the outside and is cavernous within, so these stories, often only several pages, contain depths and layers far larger than the sum of their words. While all great "flash fiction" conveys far more than its brevity implies, Orner does something different, something quieter and more resonant. How he does it may remain as great a mystery as the inner workings of the Doctor's time machine.
The thirty-four stories are divided into four sections: "What Remains", "The Famous", "Fall River Marriage" and "The Waters". The final two sections contain linked stories about two sets of Jewish families.
The first story, Initials Etched on a Dining-Room Table, Lockeport, Nova Scotia is an excellent choice, a showcase for all Orner's particular talents. Very short, two and a half pages, yet it encompasses a far, far longer story. With a strong sense of time and history, illustrating precisely why it begins the "What Remains" section, it moves smoothly from one person's story into another, and ties everything together powerfully and unexpectedly with a pitch-perfect ending. This is what Peter Orner's stories do. ...
Read the rest of my review here on the Short Review
The thirty-four stories are divided into four sections: "What Remains", "The Famous", "Fall River Marriage" and "The Waters". The final two sections contain linked stories about two sets of Jewish families.
The first story, Initials Etched on a Dining-Room Table, Lockeport, Nova Scotia is an excellent choice, a showcase for all Orner's particular talents. Very short, two and a half pages, yet it encompasses a far, far longer story. With a strong sense of time and history, illustrating precisely why it begins the "What Remains" section, it moves smoothly from one person's story into another, and ties everything together powerfully and unexpectedly with a pitch-perfect ending. This is what Peter Orner's stories do. ...
Read the rest of my review here on the Short Review
November 18, 2014
These are deceptively simple stories - some interconnecting - of the inner workings of people. I enjoyed the connecting stories of two families, but the standalone stories were the winners for me.
A thrown over husband wonders back into his old home while the teenage babysitter watches in fascinated bewilderment. Two Edgar Allen Poe impersonators haunt a sleepy town without acknowledging the other exists until a catastrophic confrontation. A landlord lacks the will to take care of his properties and his failing marriage. When a decrepit, blind tenant he might have helped dies, he is forced to face his failures with a searing sadness and honesty.
These are the people who live next door to us, who we work with every day, and sometimes they are us. We live in a world which only acknowledges the most beautiful, the fastest, the richest, but these stories are a reminder of how hollow that is. There is beauty and strength in the ordinary, as well as pain and tragedy.
Orner's writing is beautiful - his dialog reads better than 98% of the screenplays we sit through at the theater on a regular basis, and at least once every 10 pages, I couldn't help but think, "I've thought that a thousand times - why couldn't I express it like that?"
Great read. Looking forward to my next Orner work.
A thrown over husband wonders back into his old home while the teenage babysitter watches in fascinated bewilderment. Two Edgar Allen Poe impersonators haunt a sleepy town without acknowledging the other exists until a catastrophic confrontation. A landlord lacks the will to take care of his properties and his failing marriage. When a decrepit, blind tenant he might have helped dies, he is forced to face his failures with a searing sadness and honesty.
These are the people who live next door to us, who we work with every day, and sometimes they are us. We live in a world which only acknowledges the most beautiful, the fastest, the richest, but these stories are a reminder of how hollow that is. There is beauty and strength in the ordinary, as well as pain and tragedy.
Orner's writing is beautiful - his dialog reads better than 98% of the screenplays we sit through at the theater on a regular basis, and at least once every 10 pages, I couldn't help but think, "I've thought that a thousand times - why couldn't I express it like that?"
Great read. Looking forward to my next Orner work.
July 29, 2009
This was my second attempt to read Peter Orner's much-recommended book. The first time, I read two stories, and made it to page 13. When I picked it up again, I realized it hadn't made any impression on me. Nada. This time, I read a dozen stories and made it to page 69. And, once again, nothing. It fails my 33-page test, which has been a reliable standard for me. It's also given me a new policy: two strikes, and you're out. If I make two sincere attempts to read a book and it still doesn't engage me, it needs to go back to the library or find a new home. I try to like short stories, but they strike me rather like an Etch A Sketch: there's potential there, and maybe even the beginnings of an interesting image, when someone shakes the thing and takes me back to square one. I intend to leave this one in a break room at work because I'm unwilling to give it the 9/16ths of an inch of shelf space it's occupied for half a dozen years or more. There are two collections of short stories still on my shelves. Then, it may be all she wrote. Or, read.
June 30, 2013
Esther Stories is a poignant book. "Yearning" and "delicate" are key emotions. Orner's characters are often suffering and miserable, but he treats them with sympathy and unflinching honesty. One piece about a woman who returns to her home town after 20 years of marriage but without her husband is particularly powerful. She is the target of gossip, but finds in the town a kind of shelter she never had in marriage.
There is a strong sense of place to the stories. Specific streets in cities and towns are often mentioned. The author treats his characters in the Midwest with respect, rather than condescension.
Some of the stories stand alone, but others are closely related. I found a series of stories about a couple, the Kaplans, in Massachusetts to be particularly moving. Their marriage due to pregnancy, the ups and downs of a life together and their slow decline were captivating.
A group of stories set in Chicago, however, was a bit disappointing. These wander aimlessly. I had hoped for more from this group because I know some of the neighborhoods he writes about.
There is a strong sense of place to the stories. Specific streets in cities and towns are often mentioned. The author treats his characters in the Midwest with respect, rather than condescension.
Some of the stories stand alone, but others are closely related. I found a series of stories about a couple, the Kaplans, in Massachusetts to be particularly moving. Their marriage due to pregnancy, the ups and downs of a life together and their slow decline were captivating.
A group of stories set in Chicago, however, was a bit disappointing. These wander aimlessly. I had hoped for more from this group because I know some of the neighborhoods he writes about.
May 4, 2016
Parts one and two are composed of individual stories. Part three is composed of stories about a single family. The same with part four. Part four does a fantastic job of portraying family mythology. Orner nails it. Of the individual stories, "Cousin Tuck's" was amazing.
I don't disagree with folks who have rated the collection five stars. It's great writing. For me, some of the stories, while good, weren't great. So, four stars.
Quotes
I don't disagree with folks who have rated the collection five stars. It's great writing. For me, some of the stories, while good, weren't great. So, four stars.
Quotes
June 14, 2008
I loved Orner's story, "The Raft" and fell just as deeply in love with his "Thumbs", "Pile of Clothes", and the title story of this fractured yet piercing collection. This is an interesting structured collection; four sections, the first two linked by theme ("What Remains" and "The Famous", respectively), the third a novella-in-stories surrounding a couple's strained relationship, and the fourth a semi-autobiographical exploration of the relationships between a grandfather, his son, and his grandson. There are a lot of stories here, and a vast range of emotional territory is explored; at times, the collection feels lopsided and disjointed for all the different emotional pitches played. But the structure helps focus the emotional resonance, and when enjoyed piecemeal, these stories hit hard. Orner writes some darn fine flash fiction; he avoids cliche and coldness and consistently succeeds in making his brief stories cause the tiniest, sharpest tremors in one's heart.
February 3, 2008
A terrific collection. Most of these stories are quite short--sometimes just a few pages--and some are related through characters, while others stand alone. Those taking up several generations of two extended Jewish families provide a cumulative historical sweep when taken together; individually they keep an effective tight focus that I think would have been lost in a novel. The other pieces often capture something of memory, or an extrapolation of a horrifying event in ways not quite predictable. Orner's prose is sharp but not show-offy; his structures often allow for shifts in point of view in a small space, which spins a small story into something larger. I'll definitely pick up his novel after this.
November 5, 2008
this book is pure "miserablism." it depicts miserable situations just for sake of being miserable.
the book is a collection of SHORT stories. they are really short, any where from 2-5 pages. you don't get to learn much about the characters, you just see them go from one depressing situation to another.
the first part of the book is about dead people. more specifically, what happens when people deal with the physical belongings of a recently deceased person.
the second part is about unattractive people in love -- more specifically, unattractive people breaking up and falling out of love etc.
i had to stop after that about half-way through.
the whole thing is confusing and a bummer. don't waste your time.
the book is a collection of SHORT stories. they are really short, any where from 2-5 pages. you don't get to learn much about the characters, you just see them go from one depressing situation to another.
the first part of the book is about dead people. more specifically, what happens when people deal with the physical belongings of a recently deceased person.
the second part is about unattractive people in love -- more specifically, unattractive people breaking up and falling out of love etc.
i had to stop after that about half-way through.
the whole thing is confusing and a bummer. don't waste your time.
September 25, 2013
The stories are in 4 parts. The first 2 parts were ok for me. I admire Orner's descriptive writing, but didn't totally get what was going on sometimes. Part 3 was a series of stories about a Jewish family from the east coast. Part 4 was a series of stories about a Jewish family in the Chicago area. Those stories were very engaging, humorous at times, tragic at times. Moving portrayals of families, their love for each other and their disfunctional aspects.
In the section about the family in Chicago, I enjoyed the references to places I'm familiar with in Chicago. Some of the family go to the U of I in Champaign...and there is a little vignette about a couple going to a cornfield outside of Rantoul to count the stars.
In the section about the family in Chicago, I enjoyed the references to places I'm familiar with in Chicago. Some of the family go to the U of I in Champaign...and there is a little vignette about a couple going to a cornfield outside of Rantoul to count the stars.
March 24, 2018
Midway through, I thought I did not like it as much as I'd hoped I would; upon finishing, I liked it better than that. The last two stories: "Esther Stories," and "The Waters" were good summations, of the book and of life and I enjoyed them. I just remember thinking the stories (many of them) tried too hard, wanted to be those "punches to the gut" that short stories so often are, and very few of them worked for me, at that level. Particularly the very short stories - 2 to 3 pages long, never really connected with me viscerally, the way the author intended. Maybe they will work better for you. I am not likely to seek out more from this author. Too many books on my "to-read" list to get through in the limited years I have left.
August 15, 2008
My buddy is hopping to take some workshops with this guy and told me to check him out. In this collection, there are brief glimpses into the past that, in places reveal a larger picture, and in others just a snapshot of a life. I particularly like Orner's use of the Midwest landscape.
His story about two Poe impersonators in a small Midwest town made me chuckle. His segmented history of a North Chicago family had me looking at my own history for artifacts I'd never suspect could have such import.
His story about two Poe impersonators in a small Midwest town made me chuckle. His segmented history of a North Chicago family had me looking at my own history for artifacts I'd never suspect could have such import.
July 2, 2014
Collections of stories of characters mostly in the midwest, especially Chicago and Rogers Park; people and families that seem so familiar in places we know and love, full of history and love, heartache and death, just quiet moments of lives and life remembered. I loved the names and memories and smiled so often just imagining all of them. It's a library book and i never want to return it.
June 11, 2008
I really wanted to like these stories, but with the exception of one, they were pretty boring. (I admittedly didn't read every single one, but I read about half, and was too bored to plow through the others, so perhaps there are a few more gems in this book that I bypassed...)
March 4, 2012
These, often very short, stories are beautifully written and evocative. The book is divided into four distinct sections. The final part of the book introduces characters that will be revisited by Orner in Love and Shame and Love.
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