Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge: Stories

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