Of This Time, of That Place, and Other Stories

The story, "Of This Time, of That Place" is one the greatest short stories in the history of modern literature. It is utterly riveting, thought-provoking, and incites the most passionate discussions. If you haven't read this story, you are missing out on one of the great works of all time. It is about a conscientious teacher in an all-boys school who encounters a student who at first, seems utterly brilliant. But things change, and the story takes a turn that leaves the reader spell-bound. That is all I'm going to say - READ IT!

In the later decades of the 20th Century it came into vogue, thank goodness, for writers to tell stories about sexual deviants, drug-using Marines, the underprivileged, in short, about real people. We discovered in reading such stories that these real people were not only amongst us in whole form, but also, in part, inside each of us. The power of the short story to thrill us came back with the writings of Thom Jones, Junot Diaz, Denis Johnson, Jennifer Egan, et al. But what a mistake to lose in the heralding of the new, what was fine and fantastic in those whose place at the top they overtook. There is something bracing and high in the intelligence and manners found in the stories of Lionel Trilling that it would be pleasant to have with us here in the 21st Century.