Peter Orner explores the impact of life are welcome additions to the art of the story.
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Nov 21, 2010
I bought this book at the 50 cents sale in the library. Of interest, there is an inscription inside: "Brenda & Ken, hope you enjoy these short stories. The author is Ted's step-brother. Always, Anne & Ted. January 6, 2002." January 6th being my birthday and this book being gifted to Brenda & Ken by the wife of Peter Orner's step-brother... well, it's kind of cool! And the fact that I got if for 50 cents :)
The point is, they are really short, and addictive! You just want to More...
The point is, they are really short, and addictive! You just want to More...
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May 02, 2010
Tania
rated it: 
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 i
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Jul 29, 2009
Marguerite
rated it: 
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 engag
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Jan 17, 2012
Pete
rated it: 
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 ear
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Jun 14, 2008
Patrick
rated it:
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 relation
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Nov 05, 2008
Alex
rated it: 
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.
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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.
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Feb 03, 2008
Anne
rated it:
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 predict
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Aug 15, 2008
Gabriel
rated it: 
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 hav More...
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 hav More...
Nov 03, 2008
Laura
rated it:
I want to love Peter Orner, and I do. But he always loses me somewhere. I read the first part of this book (the short stories part) and LOVED LOVED LOVED it. But the second part with the longer stories (the novella? linked stories?) just lost me. But overall, I do love him, and I think my bad attention span is more my problem than his.
Jun 07, 2010
Alice
rated it:
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...
Jun 10, 2008
Stacey
rated it:
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...)
Aug 02, 2007
Lea
rated it:
An excellent short story collection. I kept waiting for a story to let me down, but they never did.
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