SOURCE: "Who to Feel Sorry For: Teaching 'Aquarius'," in Room of One's Own, Vol. 10, No. 3/4, March, 1986, pp. 103-04.

In the following essay, Thesen recounts teaching the story "Aquarius" to college freshmen, revealing to them the distrust they should have of the story's narrator, a disgruntled husband.

Audrey Thomas' "Aquarius" (in Two in the Bush and Other Stories) is a story I frequently teach in first-year college fiction. The class is usually composed of about 60% males and about 40% females. They are young, middle or upper-middle class people of the North Vancouver variety; sometimes quite cute; born in 1966 or something ridiculous; jeans and Adidas—you get the picture. The girls are usually quiet in class if not whispering or giggling, and sometimes seem embarrassed by the guys. But most often they are utterly indifferent to them. Maybe they already have boyfriends. Who knows. Who, for that matter, cares. The story...