Here Comes Another Lesson: Stories

by Stephen O'Connor

STEPHEN O’CONNOR IS ONE OF TODAY’S MOST GIFTED AND ORIGINAL WRITERS. In Here Comes Another Lesson, O’Connor, whose stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Conjunctions, and many other places, fearlessly depicts a world that no longer quite makes sense. Ranging from the wildly inventive to the vividly realistic, these brilliant stories offer tender portraits of idealists who cannot live according to their own ideals and of lovers baffled by the realities of love. The story lines are A son is followed home from work by his dead father. God instructs a professor of atheism to disseminate updated Commandments. The Minotaur is awakened to his own humanity by the computer-game-playing "new girl" who has been brought to him for supper. A recently returned veteran longs for the utterly ordinary life he led as a husband and father before being sent to Iraq. An ornithologist, forewarned by a cormorant of the exact minute of his death, struggles to remain alert to beauty and joy. As playful as it is lyrical, Here Comes Another Lesson celebrates human hopefulness and laments a sane and gentle world that cannot exist.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

STEPHEN OCONNOR is the author of two collections of short fiction, Rescue and Here Comes Another Lesson, and of two works of nonfiction, Will My Name Be Shouted Out?, a memoir, and Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed, narrative history.

His fiction and poetry have appeared in The New Yorker, Conjunctions, TriQuarterly, Threepenny Review, Poetry Magazine, The Missouri Review, The Quarterly, Partisan Review, The Massachusetts Review, Fiction International, and many other places. His essays and journalism have been published in The New York Times, DoubleTake, The Nation, Agni, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The New Labor Forum, and elsewhere.

He is a recipient of the Cornell Woolrich Fellowship in Creative Writing from Columbia University; the Visiting Fellowship for Historical Research by Artists and Writers from the American Antiquarian Society; and the DeWitt Wallace/Readers Digest Fellowship from the MacDowell Colony. He lives in New York City and teaches fiction and nonfiction writing in the MFA programs of Columbia and Sarah Lawrence.

For additional information, please visit:www.stephenoconnor.net
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Reviews

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone really wants this book to be thought of as edgy. Most of the blurbs mention that O'Connor isn't a writer afraid to take risks. There are no risks here. This is edgy and dangerous like Blink-182 was an edgy and dangerous band.

The book does have a nice cover though.

And the stories aren't awful, they just aren't that interesting. Like this review.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have gone back and read The Minotaur many times since my first reading, so I finally got the book out of the library the rest of the book. What? I feel like that story was a bolt of lightning illuminating life, the universe and everything. The rest of the stories are like a long vacation with French people.

[John Pappas · Rating 3 out of 5]

O'Connor's collection is as interesting as it is ambitious, but his talent is most clearly demonstrated with his more realistic stories. When he ventures into surrealism and absurdist allegory, his stories, while grounded, never seem quite fully realized or imagined. They lack the sort of confident dream logic and underlying unity that makes short stories by Barthelme or Millhauser so effective. Still, stories like "Love" and "Based on a True Story" are excellent, and the uneasy mood evoked by the best stories here has a clear root in the post-9/11 American zeitgeist.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

i sure learned my lesson

[Mary BookHounds · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing I thought of when I finished reading this collection of short stories was: Twilight Zone. These short vignettes could easily be some of the greatest thirty minutes on television today. The first story is a shining example and probably my favorite in the whole book. A minotaur (yes, the Greek mythological one), finds true love in what is supposed to be his next meal. It truly turned out to be a beauty and the beast type tale that would please any paranormal romance fan. Well, except for the fact that his gamer girl gets away.

There are several stories in this collection and here are the ones that truly stood out to me.


Aunt Jules -- just sooo creepy, it looks like a normal story, but there is a wicked twist in there.
I Think I'm Happier -- this just sums up life in general.
Bestiary -- reminds me of my favorite English class.


This book is definitely on my keeper shelf since I can reread these stories over and over again to find something new each time. There are some truly touching moments in the book, but all with a strange slant on life.

[Emilie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best lines: As a child Tim had learned to tell the difference between disappearance and loss. Disappearance is best defined as the occassion for reappearance; loss is the diminishment of life. The problem was that Tim has only learned this lesson in a way; in another way he hadn't learned it all all, and so, during all of his days and years, even his most joyful hours had contained minutes of sorrow.

What is any life built out of? Mostly the hope that today's dream will be tomorrow's fact. That's what makes a box of furtniture into a home. That;s what turns two rows of faces into a dinner party.

[Zalary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm giving up. There are simply too many stories about atheism intersecting with god (I'm on what feels like the fifth, but is at least the third - in under 200 pages). At the end of each story, I feel like there is too much pretentiousness, too many metaphorical winks, and not nearly enough substance. He got really close to creating a few gems, and I wouldn't be surprised if he pulls one out in the last half of the book, but I don't have the patience to slog through.

[Harley]

Along with the Brad Watson book, I have this out of the library. I read the first story, Ziggurat, in the New Yorker -- the minatour is befuddled by a computer game playing girl who doesn't seem particularly afraid. The second story is the most powerful I've read about a damaged solder returning from Iraq. I look forward to the rest, even if I have to renew it twelve times.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked "Ziggurat" a lot, about the Minotaur and loneliness, and this gave me high hopes for the whole collection. Many of the stories were clever, but they kept hitting the same notes, perhaps riding too much on the premise and/or cleverness instead of going somewhere. I found this boring and dissatisfying.

[Dmitriy Rozentsvay · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first story was what hooked me up. It first appeared in New Yorker, and after reading it, I knew I had to have this book.
Wrong.
The next three stories were just not up to my taste. Too general, far fetched (yeah, I know, first one was too), missing something.
As I said, other people might find the stories more "believable" then me. But it was not for my taste.

[LeeAnn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't finish this book, severely grotesque in some of the stories-White Rain I think it was? I got about halfway through and just put it down.

[Helie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really like these, read it a while ago so no immediate reactions.

[Shanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely little collection of short stories.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four and a half stars for the story 'White Fire.' One to two stars for the rest. Tales of mostly miserable people having a mediocre time. Welcome to modern fiction.

[Miriam]

Impressive pathos. It accumulates into nightmarishness. I didn't read the last story and a half because it's spring and i did not want to wallow.