Aubrey holds a Ph.D. in English and has published many articles on contemporary literature. In this essay, Aubrey discusses Ochsner's characterization of her protagonist and the way she crafts his moment of transformation at the end of the story.

Many of Ochsner's short stories, including “The Necessary Grace to Fall,” are informed by a spiritual vision that offers moments of unexpected redemption to troubled characters. Ochsner's commitment to an optimistic view of the possibilities latent in even the most despairing of lives is an unusual, some would say refreshing, quality in a young American writer of literary short stories. She is no Raymond Carver, committed to a relentlessly bleak view of human life and human nature. Although she does not turn a blind eye to the sadness of life and the small hells that people create for themselves, and subjects such as death, suicide, violence, and...