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Things That Fall from the Sky: Stories
Weaving together loss and anxiety with fantastic elements and literary sleight-of-hand, Kevin Brockmeier’s richly imagined Things That Fall from the Sky views the nagging realities of the world through a hopeful lens. In the deftly told “These Hands,� a man named Lewis recounts his time babysitting a young girl and his inconsolable sense of loss after she is wrenched away. In “Apples,� a boy comes to terms with the complex world of adults, his first pangs of love, and the bizarre death of his Bible coach. “The Jesus Stories� examines a people trying to accelerate the Second Coming by telling the story of Christ in every possible way. And in the O. Henry Award winning “The Ceiling,� a man’s marriage begins to disintegrate after the sky starts slowly descending.Achingly beautiful and deceptively simple, Things That Fall from the Sky defies gravity as one of the most original story collections seen in recent years.From the Trade Paperback edition.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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1092 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Brockmeier
50Ìýbooks492ÌýfollowersBorn and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Brockmeier received his MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1997. His stories have been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Crazyhorse, and The Georgia Review. He is the recipient of an O. Henry Award, the Nelson Algren Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts grant.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
February 8, 2022
Very Short Review: "Apples" and "The Jesus Stories" are worth the price of admission alone.
Short Review: A decent collection. I checked the book out of the library and immediately purchased it after reading "Apples," "The Jesus Stories," and "A Day in the Life of Half of Rumplestiltskin." I loved all of these, will reread them numerous times, and don't feel like saying much else about them because they're still to close to me. Though I will say that I'll always think of "Apples" whenever I heard the word betwixt. Just beautiful. But the rest of the stories fell flat for me - though they might appeal to some. To me his stories (besides the aforementioned ones) tend to have a quietly disconcerting feel to them - well, "quietly" might not be right. I'd say "vaguely" is better. They feel a little vague, a little sad. A typical character is not someone who is lost, unsure, alone, full of longing - it's more like they are vaguely lost, vaguely unsure, vaguely hopeful. And I don't really get into that. It feels like a certain type of current day writing to me; gauzy, muffled, hurt, reaching out (but only vaguely). It's McSweeny's and Dave Eggers. It's NOT, as some blurbs said, like Ray Bradbury or Flannery O'Connor. Especially not O'Connor. Describing her work, she said: “To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large, startling figures.� Brockmeier's work is not stark, startling, or shouting - they are more dreamlike. Which is fine, but I don't really care to read about dreams. (On a sidenote, the only time I remember really liking it was in Raymond Carver's short story "Dreams;" he tends to give me a sense of place, and of moments within those places, but I didn't get that as much with Brockmeier.)
Other Notes: Every now & then Brockmeier gets a little pocket of observation just right - like Katherine's feeling like the library was underwater, or laying in bed and "her bedroom seems to widen with light, and the quiet, steady motion of it makes her think of golden fields of grass, drifting in long waves in the breeze," that are serene and that I can immediately identify with. They seem poignant as if they should be used to close out a story, but he just sprinkles them throughout, which takes away their significance in a way, but also maybe makes them more real - makes them feel like sad wishes...
Short Review: A decent collection. I checked the book out of the library and immediately purchased it after reading "Apples," "The Jesus Stories," and "A Day in the Life of Half of Rumplestiltskin." I loved all of these, will reread them numerous times, and don't feel like saying much else about them because they're still to close to me. Though I will say that I'll always think of "Apples" whenever I heard the word betwixt. Just beautiful. But the rest of the stories fell flat for me - though they might appeal to some. To me his stories (besides the aforementioned ones) tend to have a quietly disconcerting feel to them - well, "quietly" might not be right. I'd say "vaguely" is better. They feel a little vague, a little sad. A typical character is not someone who is lost, unsure, alone, full of longing - it's more like they are vaguely lost, vaguely unsure, vaguely hopeful. And I don't really get into that. It feels like a certain type of current day writing to me; gauzy, muffled, hurt, reaching out (but only vaguely). It's McSweeny's and Dave Eggers. It's NOT, as some blurbs said, like Ray Bradbury or Flannery O'Connor. Especially not O'Connor. Describing her work, she said: “To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large, startling figures.� Brockmeier's work is not stark, startling, or shouting - they are more dreamlike. Which is fine, but I don't really care to read about dreams. (On a sidenote, the only time I remember really liking it was in Raymond Carver's short story "Dreams;" he tends to give me a sense of place, and of moments within those places, but I didn't get that as much with Brockmeier.)
Other Notes: Every now & then Brockmeier gets a little pocket of observation just right - like Katherine's feeling like the library was underwater, or laying in bed and "her bedroom seems to widen with light, and the quiet, steady motion of it makes her think of golden fields of grass, drifting in long waves in the breeze," that are serene and that I can immediately identify with. They seem poignant as if they should be used to close out a story, but he just sprinkles them throughout, which takes away their significance in a way, but also maybe makes them more real - makes them feel like sad wishes...
August 11, 2020
Interesting story. Brockmeier is a very talented author.
January 10, 2012
A varied collection of short stories, carefully crafted and light of touch. If nothing else, a real pleasant alternative to many recent collections I have read in that there is no graphic violence, no sex, no profanity, and no irrational cruelty. I didn't know that was possible any more. But it's more than that; a number of these stories are poignant and touching. Mr. Brockmeier's protagonists often reveal themselves as innocents and earn our admiration and respect, and his perceptions of the world they inhabit are acute. As must be expected in any such collection, not all the tales are up to the mark, but most are. Recommended.
July 29, 2008
I read Brockmeier's novel A Brief History of the Dead and was absolutely blown away. It was a beautiful, haunting book. As a lover of the short story form, then, I couldn't wait to read this collection--but I was let down. There are a couple of really great stories, but, overall, neither the writing nor the plot conception of these stories begins to approach the masterful beauty of Brief History. I liked this book, but I didn't love it, and I thought I would, so my sense of disappointment was probably outsized.
December 28, 2008
sadly, i liked the chesterton quote about fairy tales which brockmeier prefaces his book with most of all, but there are several stories that charmed me:
apples, a day in the life of half rumpelstiltskin, the ceiling, the jesus stories (which bore the fragrance of borges)and the house at the end of the world. i was a little bored otherwise. i like the concepts and not the execution, i guess.
"in the fairytale an incomprehensible happiness rests upon an incomprehensible condition. a box is opened, and all evils fly out. a word is forgotten, and cities perish. a lamp is lit, and love flies away. a flower is plucked, and human lives are forfeited. and apple is eaten, and the hope of god is gone" -- gk chesterton
apples, a day in the life of half rumpelstiltskin, the ceiling, the jesus stories (which bore the fragrance of borges)and the house at the end of the world. i was a little bored otherwise. i like the concepts and not the execution, i guess.
"in the fairytale an incomprehensible happiness rests upon an incomprehensible condition. a box is opened, and all evils fly out. a word is forgotten, and cities perish. a lamp is lit, and love flies away. a flower is plucked, and human lives are forfeited. and apple is eaten, and the hope of god is gone" -- gk chesterton
March 17, 2008
These stories are extremely cerebral, and still manage to feel fragile. My personal favorite is The House at the End of the World.
June 15, 2019
3.75. A little creepy but not bad for a little chap book.
February 19, 2019
Having the opportunity to listen to Kevin Brockmeier speak about his process, his inspirations, and his craft was greatly worthwhile. But it was also extremely obvious how different he and I are. The magical realism and folktale inspired stories in this collection are not my thing. Also, a librarian wouldn't be chastised by her boss for answering a child's question, even if happened to be about pornography.
May 7, 2018
A beautifully strange synthesis of style. As if John Green, Don DeLillo, and Jorge Luis Borges short stories had a baby. A young adult/allegory/fablesque mesh.
August 10, 2021
Lovely line-level writing of the late 90s/early 2000s variety, but I just couldn't get myself to care about pretty much any of these stories, unfortunately.
April 13, 2020
These did not hit me as they previously did :/
May 31, 2008
This collection of short fiction begins with a story that is by turns creepy and beautifully done: "These Hands." Here's the thing about this story, though...KB has his narrator name-check Nabokov to prove that, yes, reader, yes, KB knows he's working in the vein of Lolita, and his character knows it too--but this knowledge didn't really help me to appreciate the story more. Actually, I thought KB's choice to have the child-character be an infant had already proven to me that KB was up to something a bit different than VN...But enough of that.
The collection offers a mix of straightforward realism (my favorite of these was probably "Apples"), fairytailishness, and "concept" stories (what if a windowwasher fell in love with a woman he saw through a window he was washing? what if a man lived his entire life on an airplane?).
"The Ceiling" and "The House at the End of the World" were examples of "concept" stories that worked well, but I felt that too many stories here seemed like exercises that began with a bizarre premise and never went further with it (see "The Passenger" and "The Light in the Window"). Am I becoming impatient, as a reader? Am I losing the ability to appreciate a story that's a little wacky, that creates its own world? Nah. I just need something to happen in that world. I need for that world to matter.
The collection offers a mix of straightforward realism (my favorite of these was probably "Apples"), fairytailishness, and "concept" stories (what if a windowwasher fell in love with a woman he saw through a window he was washing? what if a man lived his entire life on an airplane?).
"The Ceiling" and "The House at the End of the World" were examples of "concept" stories that worked well, but I felt that too many stories here seemed like exercises that began with a bizarre premise and never went further with it (see "The Passenger" and "The Light in the Window"). Am I becoming impatient, as a reader? Am I losing the ability to appreciate a story that's a little wacky, that creates its own world? Nah. I just need something to happen in that world. I need for that world to matter.
July 23, 2012
After reading "The Ceiling" in an anthology of short stories, I felt compelled to pick up the collection it came from. In some ways this was a mistake--Brockmeier's other stories have difficulty living up to that first impression. Some of them do, but some were a disappointment.
Of the 11 in the collection, I would say 3 were top notch. I thoroughly enjoyed "Apples", "The Ceiling", and "The House at the End of the World". The fact that I didn't love some of the other stories doesn't really surprise me, though. Fairytales and the accompanying parts are an important theme of the collection which isn't really my cup of tea.
Ultimately, though, the thing that first drew me to Brockmeier prevailed through the collection--his artful descriptions and ability to pick up on the little things that happen in life. Throughout the book I found myself stopping and reading over sentences or paragraphs as I admired his word choice and literary style.
That is why I gave the collection 4 stars. The plot was often not that appealing to me, but it was incredibly well written and an enjoyable read throughout. I would recommend the collection (or at least some of the stories) to everyone.
Of the 11 in the collection, I would say 3 were top notch. I thoroughly enjoyed "Apples", "The Ceiling", and "The House at the End of the World". The fact that I didn't love some of the other stories doesn't really surprise me, though. Fairytales and the accompanying parts are an important theme of the collection which isn't really my cup of tea.
Ultimately, though, the thing that first drew me to Brockmeier prevailed through the collection--his artful descriptions and ability to pick up on the little things that happen in life. Throughout the book I found myself stopping and reading over sentences or paragraphs as I admired his word choice and literary style.
That is why I gave the collection 4 stars. The plot was often not that appealing to me, but it was incredibly well written and an enjoyable read throughout. I would recommend the collection (or at least some of the stories) to everyone.
August 13, 2016
I liked this collection much better than Brockmeier's second. It seemed less calculated, just honest. Several pieces reminded me so much of Millhauser's work, but still held enough of Brockmeier's voice and spirit, it seemed, that they worked out. My favorites were "These Hands," "The Ceiling," and "The Jesus Stories." I found each thought-provoking, compelling. "The Ceiling," probably had the strongest hold on me, maybe because it was slightly absurd, but the absurdism was consistent to the very end, a sad but inevitable end, and I appreciated this.
On a side note, it's always interesting to read collections and see words/metaphors that authors use consistently in their work. For Brockmeier, it's bubbles and buoys, and he has a great talent for turning nouns into verbs - chandeliered, lamping (not in the dictionary sense - beat/hit - but as a way to say illuminated), etc. His innovative way with vocabulary was fun to experience, as a reader.
On a side note, it's always interesting to read collections and see words/metaphors that authors use consistently in their work. For Brockmeier, it's bubbles and buoys, and he has a great talent for turning nouns into verbs - chandeliered, lamping (not in the dictionary sense - beat/hit - but as a way to say illuminated), etc. His innovative way with vocabulary was fun to experience, as a reader.
August 22, 2011
While a lot of the sentences were quite heavy--a characteristic that caused me to read and re-read and re-read some paragraphs--a lot of the stories are quite fascinating. They ask the reader to internalize what is right and what is wrong, for example. When a 35-year-old male babysitter begins to call the baby under his charge his daughter, should we be frightened or saddened by this closeness? When a father has kidnapped his child and possessed her since her infancy, should we feel relieved or astonished when he's found by police? There were two stories that I did not finish: "The Passenger" and "The Jesus Stories." It could be that I was too tired to read them or didn't want to put in the effort to finish them, but they seem less plot-driven and were skipped as a result.
October 28, 2009
I appreciate great description of ordinary things, and this book excels at it. Example:
"Brown leaves shot with threads of red and yellow skittered across the park. They swept past merry-go-rounds and picnic tables, past heavy gray stones and rotunda bars. A man and his daughter tottered on a seesaw, a knot of sunlight shuttling along the rod between them like a bubble in a tube of water." p.24
Some stories in the middle disappointed, but overall it's a fine collection. Reminds me of Aimee Bender a little because of the well written description, though less bizarre.
"Brown leaves shot with threads of red and yellow skittered across the park. They swept past merry-go-rounds and picnic tables, past heavy gray stones and rotunda bars. A man and his daughter tottered on a seesaw, a knot of sunlight shuttling along the rod between them like a bubble in a tube of water." p.24
Some stories in the middle disappointed, but overall it's a fine collection. Reminds me of Aimee Bender a little because of the well written description, though less bizarre.
August 22, 2013
A couple really good stories and wonderful writing throughout, but for heaven's sake, man, make something happen. Too often these stories were just inert glimpses into the lives of people I didn't find all that interesting.
September 20, 2014
amazingly forgettable.
August 27, 2021
** Read “The Ceiling� for my short essay class**
Really good, a sense of losing control over your life as the world comes to an end.
Really good, a sense of losing control over your life as the world comes to an end.
September 29, 2015
Favorite stories: Things that Fall from the Sky, The Ceiling
June 2, 2023
The book is called Things That Fall from the Sky and, poetically, it's as if it fell from the sky right down to my hands.
There it was, a bare hardcover standing in a shelf of the second-hand bookstore I like to go to. It stood out because, without the dust jacket, there's no name or author visible, pretty much just clouds floating by in a blue sky.
I was very excited to have picked it up. A short story collection with fewer than a hundred reviews on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ; I figured it was not a well known book. I figured I would take it home. And now, a year later, I've read it and it didn't disappoint.
I don't think any of the eleven stories has a proper ending, they simply� end. Make of them what you will, that's how the book works. Looking closely, there's a great deal to extract even if it doesn't look like much is going on, the thing is that they're character-driven. And they each left an interesting taste in me I cannot quite decipher.
I loved the originality of A Day in the Life of Half of Rumpelstiltskin and The Jesus Stories. More than one story exposes marriage; real, not romanticized: The Ceiling and Small Degrees are both clever and tragic. Apples is also worth a highlight.
It was the mundanity of each story that did it for me. The whole book left me feeling nostalgia. Nostalgia for American life in the beginning of the century, I guess. It's oddly specific, but the truth is I felt the same way after watching the TV show Six Feet Under, both have the similar theme of people living through the early aughts. These are stories of the everyday lives of ordinary humans, sometimes in non-ordinary worlds, a soft sci-fi touch that works.
Reading this book was an odd, puzzling experience that won't go away soon. One I know I can come back to when thinking of the feeling it evoked. No regrets. This was a rare and worthy find.
There it was, a bare hardcover standing in a shelf of the second-hand bookstore I like to go to. It stood out because, without the dust jacket, there's no name or author visible, pretty much just clouds floating by in a blue sky.
I was very excited to have picked it up. A short story collection with fewer than a hundred reviews on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ; I figured it was not a well known book. I figured I would take it home. And now, a year later, I've read it and it didn't disappoint.
I don't think any of the eleven stories has a proper ending, they simply� end. Make of them what you will, that's how the book works. Looking closely, there's a great deal to extract even if it doesn't look like much is going on, the thing is that they're character-driven. And they each left an interesting taste in me I cannot quite decipher.
I loved the originality of A Day in the Life of Half of Rumpelstiltskin and The Jesus Stories. More than one story exposes marriage; real, not romanticized: The Ceiling and Small Degrees are both clever and tragic. Apples is also worth a highlight.
It was the mundanity of each story that did it for me. The whole book left me feeling nostalgia. Nostalgia for American life in the beginning of the century, I guess. It's oddly specific, but the truth is I felt the same way after watching the TV show Six Feet Under, both have the similar theme of people living through the early aughts. These are stories of the everyday lives of ordinary humans, sometimes in non-ordinary worlds, a soft sci-fi touch that works.
Reading this book was an odd, puzzling experience that won't go away soon. One I know I can come back to when thinking of the feeling it evoked. No regrets. This was a rare and worthy find.
September 1, 2021
I really liked this book, but its a hard one to recommend. The first story in particular is so odd and suspenseful that I'm guessing many readers won't make it past that. It's a story about a 3o year old male babysitter watching over a newborn baby, and becoming very attached very fast. It's uncomfortable because you half expect something awful to happen soon - probably says more about our current society than anything. I didn't like this story much because of that, but it has stuck with me and the more I think about it, the more I admire the author. It's a reflection of many problems in our society, from unattached single males who should have married to parents absconding responsibility for their children to barely known people and even more.
The other stories are really good and not the same level of suspense. His writing reminds me of Aimee Bender and even Gene Wolfe, so if you like them you should try it. The Ceiling is excellent, and the more religious stories are really good too. Brockmeier grew up at a Christian school in a small town, so its fun to read him partly because of that.
The other stories are really good and not the same level of suspense. His writing reminds me of Aimee Bender and even Gene Wolfe, so if you like them you should try it. The Ceiling is excellent, and the more religious stories are really good too. Brockmeier grew up at a Christian school in a small town, so its fun to read him partly because of that.
February 4, 2019
As is so often true of short stories, these varied quite a bit in quality. The prize-winning "These Hands" about a male nanny's attachment to the toddler that he briefly cared for stands out for its ability to be quietly unsettling while also managing to capture something of the way that a loved toddler's ordinary moments can seem magical. "The House at the End of the World" is impressive and one that I don't want to say too much about lest the story be ruined for future readers. "A Day in the Life of Half of Rumpelstiltskin" is surprisingly clever, amusing, and still touching.
Overall a collection worth seeking out. I had to order it through interlibrary loan since my local library did not have a copy of these stories.
Overall a collection worth seeking out. I had to order it through interlibrary loan since my local library did not have a copy of these stories.
December 15, 2018
Collection of well-crafted stories that just didn’t hit home with me. Sometimes fantastical, always introspective. Felt slow, on the whole. Highlights include the title story, in which an aging librarian encounters a strange man at her job and deals with the disconnect with her sons� families; “Apples,� in which a junior-high student’s first kiss coincides with tragedy at his school; and “Small Degrees,� in which a retired typesetter works to develop his own script at the expense of all else in his life.
June 10, 2020
I read "The Ceiling" many years ago from some internet magazine and was really drawn to it, but when I went back looking for it, I could not find it. But what luck! It's in a book my library has. So I go the book and read the first story, "These Hands." I simply could not go on. That story haunts me, because it was so much a cloaked version of pedophilia that I felt sick to my stomach when I was through. I just couldn't read any more of the book. Sigh.
August 23, 2023
This is a book of short stories involving, as its title proclaims, things that(can or might) fall from the sky. The author has a way of taking extraordinary settings and injecting them with unexpected twists, which when thought deeply about, make perfect sense. Or the opposite, taking mundane settings and injecting fantasticality into them. Kevin Brockmeier is always worth reading.
December 26, 2018
Has one of the best short stories ever written this! PHEW, I still get chills reading The Ceiling
February 11, 2019
Brilliant.
May 13, 2019
This is the first book that I've read that includes a short story about working at America's Funniest Home Videos. It was so amazing and everything I didn't know I wanted.
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