Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge: Stories

by Peter Orner

The long-awaited second collection of stories from a writer whose first was hailed as "one of the best story collections of the last decade" (Kevin Brockmeier).

In Last Car Over The Sagamore Bridge, Peter Orner presents a kaleidoscope of individual lives viewed in intimate close-up. A woman's husband dies before their divorce is finalized; a man runs for governor and loses much more than the election; two brothers play beneath the infamous bridge at Chappaquiddick; a father and daughter outrun a hurricane--all are vivid and memorable occasions as seen through Orner's eyes. Last Car Over The Sagamore Bridge is also a return to the form Orner loves best. As he has written, "The difference between a short story and a novel is the difference between a pang in your heart and the tragedy of your whole life. Read a great story and there it is--right now--in your gut."

Foley's Pond
Occidental Hotel
Spokane
The poet
Herb and Rosalie Swanson at the Cocoanut Grove
My old boss E.J. once told me he was famous for goofy hats
At the kitchen table
Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, 1875
Railroad Men's Home
Plaza Revolución, Mexico City, 6 a.m
Horace and Josephine
I was six, maybe seven months old
Pampkin's lament
Lincoln
Last car over the Sagamore Bridge
Nathan Leopold writes to Mr. Felix Kleczka of 5383 S. Blackstone
At the end of our street was a commune in a log mansion
Detamble
Dyke Bridge
The mayor's dream
Fourteen-year-olds, Indiana Dunes, late afternoon
Denny Coughlin: in memory
The divorce
1979
The Vac-Haul
The time I said it was only an emotional affair
At the Fairmont
Roman morning
Eisendrath
Woman in a Dubrovnik Café
Reverend Hrncirik receives an airmail package
Call these meditations of an overweight junior lifeguard
Waukegan story
Lubyanka Prison, Moscow, 1940
February 26, 1995
Late dusk, Joslin, Illinois
Waldheim
Renters
On the 14
Longfellow
Paddy Bauler in a quiet moment
Geraldo, 1986
Harold Washington walks at midnight
From the collected stories of Edmund Jerry (E.J.) Hahn, Vol. IV
The gate
A couple of years before I was born
My mother stands by the window
It may have been in The Wapshot Chronicle
The moors of Chicago
Belief, 1999
Irv Pincus used to steal lamps from Kaplan's Furniture
Shhhhhh, Arthur's studying

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Adult

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Peter 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.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great short story collection, and by short, I mean some are one page long. In fact, Orner packs so much in his stories, that I wanted to reread a couple right away. Each story is a bit dark, full of wit, and some kind of creepy. My favorite is the one about the famous fire at the Cocoanut Grove in Massachusetts. Some could have been “Twilight Zone” episodes. It’s a short book with short stories. A great read, just remember: dark.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shades of Bernard Malamud, Dani Shapiro and Elizabeth Strout – but has that Peter Orner Soft Touch That Makes it Easier to Read

I first arrived at Peter Orner by happenstance – his non-fiction semi-memoir Am I Alone Here was on some ‘Hottest Non Fiction of 2018!’-type list. I checked it out of the library, placed it under my bed, and then forgot about it. After renewing it twice, the library wanted it back – so I gave it a shot –

And I was hooked in the introduction. My review – which can be seen here – https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... shows an incredibly literate guy, but with that soft touch. He writes to be read, to be understood. He brings the insight with every paragraph, but makes it accessible.

So I got a few more books, and this one – Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge is a collection of his short stories.

My mind did its best to associate his fiction style with what I knew. Was he Malamud, who could tell the tale of a shopkeeper that takes your breath away? Was he Elizabeth Strout, who reveals the dark side of everyday existence that lurks just beneath the surface? Was he Dani Shapiro, who shows the unhappiness that can simmer in a marriage and a family, any marriage and any family?

Note on the above – I love Dani Shapiro – and I love criticizing her even more.

But back to Orner – or is he Stephen King, who excels when he gets out of his element? King is known for horror, but when he writes about gangsters or books like 1922, he kicks it into overdrive. Orner is comfortable in Chicago Jewish Middle and Upper Middle Class tales, which show older relatives making one alienating mistake in their life, or in which a young, well-read man struggles with a working class job. And yet he excels whenever he gets out of his element, and tells the tale of a prisoner, or someone from the 1800s.

The answer? He is a little of all of the above, and he adds his own soft touch, primarily through brevity

I love Elizabeth Strout, whom perhaps Orner most resembles. But her style – which is not a weakness, but a style – shows a long form short story, in which the reader realizes something is very, very wrong right in the middle. You can’t get out of Strout’s tales because they are that good – but there is a relief when it is over.

And after reading Anything Is Possible – I still have not recovered, and have not picked up another of her tales.

With Orner, it’s easier. His tales are five pages long at a maximum, so by the time you realize something is wrong, you have a page to go. And then the next one comes, and you have to pick it up.

Last Car Over the Sagaore Bridge certainly has its shares of punches to the midsection, but the recovery time is quick.

So that’s it. He has his own style. Let’s see some of the best tales.

Railroad Men’s Home
Peter Orner gets just a bit out of his element here, just a bit – and tells the tale with just enough twist at the end to leave you shaken.

Horace and Josephine
This is Orner in his element here, with shades of his tales about his actual Uncle, as told in Am I Alone Here. He tells a tale of real life in all its real details – and it is not easy. But it is incredible, and look for the sequel short story later.

Pampkin’s Lament
This is a fun one. It has its twists, and its ups and downs – but it is fun.

Geraldo, 1986
This one might even be more fun than Pampkin’s Laments, and plays upon a collective memory.

Nathan Leopold Writes to Mr. Felix Kleczka of 5383 S. Blackstone
Orner is way out of his element here, and that struggle pushes this tale through the stratosphere.

Waukegan Story
Orner pushes his boundaries with this tale of an immigrant semi-single mother. This one is great as well.

The Vac-Haul
This is Orner at his strongest, and perhaps his most semi-autobiographical. He's great when he extends his range - and he's great when he doesn't, like in this case.

Conclusion
I came into Orner's world through non-fiction, but I think he is first and foremost a fiction writer. In Am I Alone Here he quotes Jorge Luis Borges -

Borges, who once said: I like beginnings and I like endings and I leave the long middles to Henry James.

Orner's short tales give a beginning and an end - but they are more than that. I think Borges would approve, as well as Malamud, Shapiro and all the rest. I do, and I know I Can't Be Alone Here.

I give it five stars, and would give it more if I could!

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is all about "silence on a fundamental level."

How do you talk about silence, creation of silence, enduring silence, observation of silence when all you have is words?

How is it, really, that we aren't "in a permanent state of mourning?"

There are no superfluous words, no extra pages.

I could, and may, write a review only about the title story.

I sit here like Walt Kaplan thinking. What's Walt Kaplan trying to get to? Silence on a fundamental level? A story told five hundred times, but still not told enough, understood enough, believed enough?

Wittgenstein: Woven man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen. Trans. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

I was told in a Creative Writing class that the endings of stories should be both surprising and inevitable. Every story in this collection, every story in this collection, understands that. Every story has auditory rhythm. A certain expectancy, but always cloaked in The Normal.

I read Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge before my two hands closed it in prayer. My oceanic consciousness atempest beneath me. No other sounds, no other distractions. Eyeballs in motion like pendulums. You think in certain instances a book of short stories isn't as powerful as the Bible?...You want me to say Hurrah! Hurrah! what a book this is but I won't. I can't. Because to read it once isn't to read it, and still I go on speaking as if the world were something speakable. As if it weren't all silence on a fundamental level. Write on reviewer, write on. Dictate brain, dictate. Louder Peter Orner, louder. I can't hear you.

[Robert Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Orner's collection of short stories is a stunning achievement. First of all, just to get a review in the Sunday New York Times, of a short story collection? Unheard of! Then, I heard Orner interviewed on Brad Listi's (The Nervous Breakdown) Other People radio show, and Orner sounded so down to earth, a nice guy with Midwestern roots, fumbling his way through life as we all are. And finally, a fellow writer in my writer's roundtable recommended the collection to me, personally.

This book is ambitious; one of the things I found most impressive is the design: fifty stories in four diverse sections. They range from a paragraph or two, some in italics (a readers wonders, are these internal points-of-view, inside a character's head? The same character?), to a full page (like a flash), to several pages, as more traditional stories might. But there is nothing traditional here- more contemporary, more subversive, or reflexive, and spare, but elegant work, Orner's writing dazzles. The Midwestern setting of many of these stories also seems perfect for the scope and creates an elusive atmosphere; how wide, deep and probing is Orner willing to go? My guess is all the way.

Even the stories that seem more obscure, or obtuse gave me pause, made me work to comprehend! Imagine that... stories that might cause a reader to reach?

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories that make up Orner’s The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo are more remarkable than the stories in this collection, especially in terms of originality and humor, but the sad stories of "Last Car," focused on those who are alone, those who have lost, and the past of myths and the past we hold against others and ourselves, have an equal variety of forms and equally show off Orner’s storytelling skills.

[Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my Amazon Best Books of the Month review, August 2013: Peter Orner’s exquisite second collection of stories rambles across time and place, from postwar 1947 to 1978 to 1958, from Chappaquiddick to Chicago to the Czech Republic, each exposing a small, intimate moment. Like an uncomfortably candid photograph (the work of William Eggleston or Vivian Maier comes to mind), the stories are finite and tightly framed, some just a page or two. Some are whimsical, some sobering, and most conclude with a “wow” moment that requires a pause--to reflect on the horror or beauty of the story, or the bravado of the writer. In one of the strongest pieces, a boy-girl conversation about an ex-lover turns unexpectedly chilling, ending with the perfect closing line: “I said don’t touch me.” From a frightened dad suffering a “permanent state of mourning” to the “childless couple” murdered in their garage to the brothers looking back on the day they fished beneath the infamous bridge at Chappaquiddick, Orner’s characters are raw, exposed, often sad, and the dialogue conveys the uncomfortable sense that you’re spying on deeply personal conversations. In a year of high-profile collections (George Saunders, Karen Russell) Orner deserves a place among those who are bringing the short form back to new artistic heights. --Neal Thompson

Peter Orner

[Wanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this collection of short stories compliments of Goodreads Firstreads giveaway. The title sounded intriguing, the cover photo captured my interest, however, the stories within failed to entertain me. I was confused by most of the stories, not knowing what the take-home theme/message was or if there even was to be one. Many seemed like they just stopped mid-thought. Some of it read more like poetry, a bunch of thoughts placed on paper that didn't go anywhere. I am clearly not the reader that the author had meant the collection to be for as I cannot appreciate it. I am certain that there is some profound literature within that I am just not getting. I mustered through this, having put down several times over. I have a hard time rating this as a result. Not the type of collection that I would pick up again.

[Carolyn Di Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this from Goodreads. There, with that out of the way, here's what I thought.
I did not think I'd really like this book. I am not really a fan of short stories. However, from the first story, I was hooked. These are very well written and extremely moving.
This is a book for adults. Each story led me to feelings I recognized and a deep understanding of the situations. This is a really excellent book, even if a bit sad.
I recommend.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whenever I'm disappointed in a book by an author I usually like, I tend to wonder if my negative reaction is due to the writing itself or to my own impatience with it. I truly enjoyed Orner's previous short story collection, Esther Stories, but this one left me cold. Again, in such cases, I frequently wonder if I gave the stories a decent chance, or whether I was either too busy with other things or too tired to really pay attention. Either way, I found these stories largely forgettable. With virtually any short story collection (including this one),
I generally read 3 or 4 short stories at a time and then put the book aside for a day before reading further. When I go back to the collection, I always look at the last story I read first just to get acclimated to the writing. With this book, I found that I rarely remembered anything about the last story I'd finished. Not a good thing! Perhaps others will enjoy this collection. Orner's reputation in certain circles is stellar, so I will hope so!

[Katherine Cooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed maybe three stories from this collection. There were a /lot/ more than three stories in this collection.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Don’t slow down, people, otherwise you might notice what’s been lost.”

Another transcendent collection, one to read slooooooooowly and savor, as every story is a quiet excavation of the invisible lost.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Hush, Luster said. Looking for them ain’t going to do no good, they’re gone.”

Among contemporary writers, only Peter Orner would be brilliant and witty and nostalgic and original and ballsy enough to tuck this highly charged allusion to Faulkner’s THE SOUND AND THE FURY late into his masterful new collection of stories, LAST CAR OVER THE SAGAMORE BRIDGE, as the haunting epigraph to Part IV, “The Country of Us.” In one way or another, most of Orner’s more than fifty new stories, look unflinchingly at and for things and people who are gone, gone, gone or going, going, going. But to allude at this turning point in his sad and funny book to Faulkner’s tragically dysfunctional Comspon family—and specifically to the cruel castration of Benjamin Compson ordered by his own brother Jason—is a breathtakingly bold move by Orner. It becomes a defining, if deceptively oblique, moment in a book constructed of defining, if often disconcertingly undefinable, moments in the fragile lives and loves of individuals, families, and communities.

An early story, “Spokane,” begins with the questions that always motivate Orner’s best writing—“If I tell you something will you listen? Will you not leave and will you listen?”—and ends with “I said don’t touch me.” To tell or not to tell; to listen or not to listen; to leave or not leave; to touch or not to touch—these most human of all choices shape Orner’s stories as they do our own.

Readers who expect stories to make these kinds of choices for them—at least in fiction, if not in life—may find that Orner disappoints or even frustrates them, even as they recognize the author’s uncanny ability to expose the human heart in conflict with itself, as Faulkner aspired to do, with stunningly unsentimental empathy.

Readers who seek the kind of truth accessible to us only through fiction that Ernest Hemingway describes in the following fragment of A MOVEABLE FEAST will embrace LAST CAR OVER THE SAGAMAORE BRIDGE as a classically subversive masterpiece and will insist that friends read at least some of Orner’s more than fifty new stories:

“There is no last chapter. There were fifty. I hope some people will understand and forgive the fiction and why it was made that way. It has been cut ruthlessly and many things changed. Many voyages have been omitted along with many people. There is no catalogue of omissions and subtractions. The lesson that it teaches has been omitted. You may insert your own lesson and the tragedies, generosities, devotions, and follies of those you knew, unscramble them as in an instrument of transmission and insert your own. You will be wrong of course as I was.”

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in Chicago after years away, the disbelief with which he met the death of his parents lingered like a childhood dream. He'd been fumbling around the attic for an hour now, telling his sister and her odious husband that he wanted to look for a memento, some piece of their memories, but really to just get away. Hand dragging down his face, he looked around again at the dusty junk, the cardboard boxes, abandoned golf clubs, and stacks of books and files. Opening a box at random, he was surprised to find several bound notebooks. The handwriting was obviously older, from a time when cursive was taught instead of the terse typing of today. No name could be found, but each page was nearly filled. Perhaps his parent's parents or even farther back on the tree.

These were stories, or, rather, pieces of them. Fragments. Thoughts. Vignettes, they used to be called. A scene, a remembrance, a longer short story. Some were presented as letters. Others held a moment in time like a glass figurine, the form changing as one turned it in the light. Dozens of separate glimpses into presumably fictional lives, events, and thoughts. Pieces of novels? Incomplete short stories? Or, more like poems or a song, meant to conjure an emotion, impart a small wisdom or warning. Who can say?

"Maybe it's publishable," he thought, thinking some good might come out of his parent's deaths after all.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of short stories by award-winning author Peter Orner. Each story ranges in length from a short paragraph to several pages long.

First off, I confess I don't often read short stories, as it's just not my favourite literary form. I tend to fall in love with some aspect of the story, be it character, plot, or setting and I don't want it to end. With that being said, I found the themes in many of the stories contained in the collection to be very, well, depressing. There's no doubt that the stories are well-written, vivid snapshots of moments in time; but let me warn you each story (particularly in the first part of the book entitled "The Survivors") someone is dead/dying/or going through some really uncomfortable situation that you just feel kind of haunted after reading it. However, I still really enjoyed Peter Orner's writing style.

The collection of stories is split into four parts: "Survivors", "The Normal", "In Moscow Everything Will Be Different", and "The Country of Us". By far my favourite was "The Survivors", because I had such an emotional response to the writing, and the spirit of the stories lingered for a long while after reading.

I highly recommend this book.

*I received a copy of this book for free through Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this collection better that "The Esther Stories." Reading them singly, a number were touching, mostly about what has been lost and what remains in relationships. But while Orner has carefully organized and categorized these stories into groups, their affinity in each group eluded me.

The impact is clearly meant to be universal. The 53 stories take place in fourteen different US states in all regions of the country, as well as Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Moscow, Rome, Prague, Dubrovnik and Brno. For the places I know personally, Orner has captured atmosphere effectively.

All in all, a pretty enjoyable read, with some very good writing in spurts, though I think Orner aimed for a higher plane which I did not manage to discern.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC through First Reads.

In this compilation of short stories, Orner writes stories that is one paragraph in length, and others that are five pages in length. Regardless, nearly each one had me invested by the end of the first or second sentence. For all of the past books that took 200 pages to get going, take a lesson from Orner: Be concise and truthful. Excellent book and I would recommend this to any reader who is tired of graciously giving authors 100+ pages to get their readers committed.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. I absolutely loved this book (and am giving it to a friend who teaches 9th grade literature for read alouds for his class). So much happens in so few pages which are written beautifully to give you all you need for the atmosphere, emotions and action which occur in each story. This would also be a great book for those of you with a short commute, limited bedtime reading, or anyone who wants a great read with major time limitations. Recommended!

[Matthew Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some stories are stronger than others, which is bound to happen in any book that features 52 stories in under 200 pages. Lots of death, lots of the twentieth century, lots of Chicago and, oddly, Fall River. I liked it quite a bit in the end, though the blurb on the back cover praising the two-page Geraldo story was maybe a little misleading..

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is an excellent review below by Neal Thompson that echoes how I felt about this book. Amazing that an author is able to wring more emotion out of a two paragraph short story than many others can do in a 400 page novel.

[False · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a disappointment in that I felt the title would reveal more short stories set on Cape Cod or New England. I've never been a fan of the short story and here was a book full of them--some of them only one page long. The author has stated that while the novel is writing of your life's tragedy, a short story is a recognized pain (or pang.) Really? On that happy note...

I was not a huge fan of this collection, but I suspect the problem was me and not Peter Orner’s work, and there are certainly a number of stories and concepts I would absolutely recommend.
He’s written a series of very brief stories exploring things like what it means to survive the loss of a loved one and especially a loved one you would expect to outlive and how we conduct our relationships with the dead, how we fulfill our unfinished business with them; how we interact with what’s normal and what’s expected of us; the way different places can allow you to be a different person or to imagine yourself as one, to change; and the isolated, closed-off territories only accessible to the two of you you create in a relationship, what Orner refers to as “the country of us.” He emphasizes a strong sense of place and a profound and pervasive sense of loss, a pained nostalgia for a past you can’t keep hold of anymore.

The brevity of each entry puts a lot of pressure on every word to accomplish the story’s goals, and I often felt that he hadn’t quite gotten there – that what we were left with was something that had the tone of literary seriousness without actually saying all that much. In some of them Orner was just more interested in conveying an image or a feeling than a meaning or an insight, but there were a number that simply didn’t work on any level for me, which left me frequently frustrated and feeling like I was missing something. As for the fleeing over the Sagamore Bridge? I've been in highly dramatic weather myself on the Cape, and he missed a ton in terms of having your body slammed by wind, rain and sand and the time frame (which can be so narrow) to get off the island. Decisions, decisions.

[Nick Milinazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Why can't our dreams be content with the terrible facts?"
Peter Orner can do in a few lines what most authors fail to do in entire books: evoke the pure essence of a mood or feeling. Instead of languished narratives, his compressed tales shine like the diamonds that they are. These stories are not flashy spectacles but rather dignified offerings to the gods of literature. There is a pervasive sadness throughout the book. Broken into four sections, only the third falls a little flat. The stories are as abundant as they are impressive -- not only in their scope but also their depth. They contain a quiet somber beauty, occasionally interspersed with a dry blunt humor. As one critic remarked, Orner "packs remarkable pathos into his condensed dramas." A master of his craft who has become one of my favorite short story authors. An evocative collection about memory and what we endure after loss.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not a huge fan of this collection, but I suspect the problem was me and not Peter Orner’s work, and there are certainly a number of stories and concepts I would absolutely recommend.

He’s written a series of very brief stories exploring things like what it means to survive the loss of a loved one and especially a loved one you would expect to outlive and how we conduct our relationships with the dead, how we fulfill our unfinished business with them; how we interact with what’s normal and what’s expected of us; the way different places can allow you to be a different person or to imagine yourself as one, to change; and the isolated, closed-off territories only accessible to the two of you you create in a relationship, what Orner refers to as “the country of us.” He emphasizes a strong sense of place and a profound and pervasive sense of loss, a pained nostalgia for a past you can’t keep hold of anymore.

I was most struck and moved by his meditations on surviving loss and grief and the sadness, loss of dignity and fear of aging/looming mortality. He has a keen eye for Western grief rituals and tropes and the ways in which they fail to satisfy us, and many of his tales of the experience of the elderly had me reaching for the phone to call my grandmother. His style lends itself well to finding something real and evocative about these awesome, universal and terrifying human experiences, letting you feel it and leaving it at that. He doesn’t try to say too much about the unspeakable.

(Speaking of which, I was struck in reading it with this thought: ALL writing is fundamentally about human mortality on some level, isn’t it? It’s about a story that deserves to be remembered after you die and it would be obliterated if it only existed in your mind.)

His stories about romantic relationships are not necessarily his strongest, but I was really struck by the concept of “the country of us,” a special place only the two of you have passports to and are natives of and speak the language of and know the culture, that you only two understand. I’m sure that’s an idea that’s going to be knocking around in my head for a long time. That being said, perhaps my favorite story in the collection was “Herb and Rosalie Swanson at the Cocoanut Grove,” one of the longer entries which spins the tale of a white lie by a couple looking for an interesting dinner party story that gets out of hand, a white lie that leads Herb Swanson to be shaken by his wife’s commitment to it and raises the question of how hard it is to really know one’s spouse even after years building a life together – somewhat the opposite of this concept.

Another favorite was the final story in the collection, “Shhhhhh, Arthur’s Studying,” one of multiple musings on brotherly relationships, but more importantly something that finds a harsh emotional truth about the anguish and frustration of the doubter in the face of the steady, shining-eyed believer. This area – the competition of doubt and belief, the threat to your sense of self you face when you lose your convictions, the challenges of feeling that you’ve failed to live up to your principles and the centrality of belief to giving your life purpose – is one that clearly troubles and intrigues Orner, and many of his best lines come from the stories where he digs into it: “What good was believing? And yet the alternative was not having faith in his fellow men, and isn’t this another way of dying?”

Orner, like me, is also interested in politics and in political figures, and one theme that crops up in multiple stories is examining politicians not as the purely political creatures we tend to see them as but as the real human beings they are. He crafts some wonderful little moments in these stories, describing Harold Washington running against Gabriel for Archangel in heaven and a pretty chilling imagined trip inside Teddy Kennedy’s head at Chappaquiddick as he decides at a critical moment that he can’t live up to what’s expected of him as a Kennedy and a hero. I thought he did a good job finding the small pieces hidden within the grand stories of political drama. (He does the same for other historical figures ranging from Mary Todd Lincoln to Isaac Babel to Nathan Leopold, to varying degrees of success. There are some striking images from Mary Todd Lincoln’s story and it led me down a fascinating research rabbit hole about her life after having lost three sons and her husband. His description of Isaac Babel’s last moments was simply blindingly sad. There is a profound sadness and loneliness and isolation that pervades many of these stories, in fact – not a collection you want to dig into on a hard night. “Waldheim” is devastating, and the title story is a gut punch it takes you a while to see coming.)

I think a more patient and careful reader would have gotten more out of Orner’s stories than I did. The brevity of each entry puts a lot of pressure on every word to accomplish the story’s goals, and I often felt that he hadn’t quite gotten there – that what we were left with was something that had the tone of literary seriousness without actually saying all that much. In some of them Orner was just more interested in conveying an image or a feeling than a meaning or an insight, but there were a number that simply didn’t work on any level for me, which left me frequently frustrated and feeling like I was missing something. But this might be my failure more than Peter Orner’s. (I also find myself a lot more invested in some of these stories in thinking about them to write this, which is probably a major point in his favor.)

Not a book you should necessarily buy, but maybe worth picking up at a trip to the library to hit the high points.

[Corissa Gay · Rating 5 out of 5]

When an author does such a compelling job of weaving a rich tapestry of full lives lived in the span of a page or two, what can I do but fall deeper in love with the whole of humanity?

"You run out of time is what I'm saying, is what I'm always saying. Whether you waste it or not. Some people you never shake." & "When they tore his store down, Walt stood on the sidewalk and wept into his sleeve. Not the store itself he mourned but the hours he spent at his office window watching ... It's the pictures in my head, Sarah, it's the pictures in my head they're wrecking. How am I supposed to hold it all without the brick and mortar around to remind me?"

I cried. I don't fully understand why.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book of short stories a lot. However, I was going to give it a 4 star because two or three stories, in which the author included conversations of some length, demonstrated a falseness-a seeming inability by the author to really hear voices, and thus make a conversation real. Interior monologues and dialogues were excellent, but talking out loud for more than one or two interchanges he didn't do so well. Other than this these stories held me in their palms. I was unwilling to move away.

And the last story, "Shhh, Arthur's Studying", made this collection an indisputable 5 star. Read the book right up to the last word in "Shh, Arthur's Studying". You will see what I mean.

[Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of very short stories. I was particularly interested in those that took place in Fall River, Massachusetts. This is very close to where I grew up. I discovered the author's mother was born in Fall River and the author spent summers in Fall River. His description of the old mill city was similar to my recollections. Anyway, this book of short stories was an enjoyable read.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orner has an uncanny way of getting into the mindsets of various characters. Many, many characters appear across this collection of short episodes in life: ordinary or exceptional, unsung or famous, male or female, young or old, likeable or not. He brings us their real selves with real thoughts, unvarnished. Because of the brevity of these sketches, some only a page, I had a hard time relating to so many. Perhaps it is this reader's desire to spend a little time with a character, likeable or not.

[Lynette Lark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how to describe this book. It's a collection of short stories--many interconnected--most anecdotal. I was hooked from the beginning, then I wasn't, then I was again. I think, "Hey, I could write a book like this." But it would be longer than 200 pages. Lynette's Vignettes. However, I just received my Medicare card so I'd better start soon. The book won't write itself . . .

[Teresa Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a book of short stories in the age of Twitter. Some of the stories were about the length of a Twitter message. Many 1 pg or less. The compilations of short store are more like the author's idea board of short stories to write. I prefer short stories that have a more to them. It does speed read well.

[Scott Parson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection of stories. They are emotionally evocative and easy to enter into. As a writer, they were excellent examples of short, meaningful pieces that work on the mind and the heart without the need to be dense or obscure.

[Fieldstudy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the variety in this collection- don't have a lot to say. Liked some better than others.