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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Brilliant brilliant. One story even had a happy ending...?!
His best collection yet. Usually there’s a story in each collection I don’t warm up to, but I liked every one.
truly exceptional and disturbing short stories, lots of petty grievances and erased memories. very absurdist. the titular story was my favorite by far, and I liked most of the individual stories but I disliked them as a collection. as a collection, I found them somehow both repetitive and disjointed.
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
George Saunders’ short stories always expand my thinking and blow my mind. Liberation Day is no exception though it feels darker than his previous work, still devoted to resilience but in a way that feels like his ideas of hope need to pummel their way through dread in order to make it to the other side. These stories light up with outrageous sci-fi circumstances and deep tenderness, with a wild imagination that confronts an ever-present threat of fascism. He exercises athletic restraint and exquisite poetic details to describe extractive human economies, sweet flirtations between coworkers, and spicy jealousies between neighbors with equal care. It left me believing in humans’ innate goodness even in worlds that have gone strangely foul, and as Saunders work always does, with a sense of comfort in the logic of how love and human behavior and the afterlife gently, inevitably intersect.
While I can appreciate what Saunders is trying to do, this wasn't my cup of tea.
I would say the main theme throughout these short stories is adherence to the rules, or lack thereof, and its intersection with selfishness. I didn't like any of the characters. Most of them had a creative approach to morality, but the ones that didn't were almost worse in their blandness.
The commentary on class, envy and a distorted sense of justice was well done, but I'm someone who likes satire and black humour, and the tone of this book was bleaker than what I find enjoyable. Your taste may be different. "The Mom of Bold Action" was definitely my favourite out of the bunch, with a protagonist trying to navigate justice and guilt from a very base level position of privilege that's very relatable in a horrible way.
I would say the main theme throughout these short stories is adherence to the rules, or lack thereof, and its intersection with selfishness. I didn't like any of the characters. Most of them had a creative approach to morality, but the ones that didn't were almost worse in their blandness.
The commentary on class, envy and a distorted sense of justice was well done, but I'm someone who likes satire and black humour, and the tone of this book was bleaker than what I find enjoyable. Your taste may be different. "The Mom of Bold Action" was definitely my favourite out of the bunch, with a protagonist trying to navigate justice and guilt from a very base level position of privilege that's very relatable in a horrible way.
Challenging, discomforting, strange—I love me some Saunders.
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced