An Honorable Profession

By John L'Heureux

1991

First Published

3.51

Average Rating

416

Number of Pages

12H38M

Audio Length

John L'Heureux is one of our most authoritative and compelling novelists, and An Honorable Profession, a New York Times Notable Book, is about an ordinary New England school where a young English teacher's life is about to undergo the most serious of tests. Miles Bannon works hard and strives to be fair; he enjoys his popularity with students—a bit too much, sometimes—but overall he is a good man. When he witnesses a group of students picking on one boy in the shower after football practice, he is suddenly forced to balance his responsibility for the situation with the unexpectedly intimate glimpse he now has of them. And when the victim begins to cling to him in the face of his own father's rejection, Miles finds it perhaps too welcome a feeling. Then comes an accusation of impropriety that will destroy his career—and transform his life, and who he thought he was, forever.

Avg Rating

3.51

Number of Ratings

117

5 STARS

21%

4 STARS

31%

3 STARS

32%

2 STARS

12%

1 STARS

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Author

John L'Heureux

Author · 10 books

John L'Heureux served on both sides of the writing desk: as staff editor and contributing editor for The Atlantic and as the author of sixteen books of poetry and fiction. His stories appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper's, The New Yorker, and have frequently been anthologized in Best American Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. His experiences as editor and writer informed and direct his teaching of writing. Starting in 1973, he taught fiction writing, the short story, and dramatic literature at Stanford. In 1981, he received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and again in 1998. His recent publications include a collection of stories, Comedians, and the novels, The Handmaid of Desire (1996), Having Everything (1999), and The Miracle (2002). http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/m...