Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
3.5
Even though I don't utterly adore everything about this collection, the titular story and "A Thing at Work" and "The Mom of Bold Action" and "My House" are lovely. Particularly the title story. Especially after having just read Layli Long Soldier, Saunders' toying with American history and class brought me much sorrow and aesthetic joy. Kind of wild to me that this is the first body of fiction that he has released since Lincoln in the Bardo (which continues to, in my eyes, be his clear magnum opus). But there's much to love here. His usual dark humor and insight into the American predicament that is America itself remains alongside a nuanced sense of humanism.
Even though I don't utterly adore everything about this collection, the titular story and "A Thing at Work" and "The Mom of Bold Action" and "My House" are lovely. Particularly the title story. Especially after having just read Layli Long Soldier, Saunders' toying with American history and class brought me much sorrow and aesthetic joy. Kind of wild to me that this is the first body of fiction that he has released since Lincoln in the Bardo (which continues to, in my eyes, be his clear magnum opus). But there's much to love here. His usual dark humor and insight into the American predicament that is America itself remains alongside a nuanced sense of humanism.
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
There's a constant experimentalism in the work of Saunders that sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't. In this collection of short stories there is one example of each. "Mother's Day" seems to me to be a masterpiece. The mother in question lives in the middle of familial disaster and is constantly feuding with another woman about the man in the piece. Her Mother's Day celebration is a complete mess. But it's the inner monologue structure and the woman's language that put this story (dare I say this?) almost on a par with the last pages of Ulysses. Written out of enormous sympathy for the difficulties that a woman faces (although we will have to ask our female comrades if this is right - where are the female critics of Saunders?) the narrative almost breaks down at times, just as the woman herself is almost in a state of breakdown. There is an intensity to this story that is completely out of the ordinary. But in another story "Elliott Spencer", I don't think the experimentalism works too well. You can see what Saunders is trying to do: to describe the world as it might seem from inside the mind of a man who is under heavy medication and is being psychologically mistreated by "the System" because of his past as a former wino who lived under the bridge and is now being "rehabilitated" and put to work in some inexplicable, incomprehensible task involving violence. The reader doesn't understand what's going on, and that's the intention because neither does Elliott himself. Saunders does this by breaking up the text into disjointed parts, as a cascade of fleeting broken fragments , the remaining bits of something that once held together. I'm not sure if this works or not but even if it doesn't, there's a profound human feeling in the story - a deeply sympathetic intention to speak up for those who have been dealt a very bad hand in the poker game of life and can't speak for themselves. Underneath the brilliant dialogue and often hilariously funny play with language, is a mind that cares deeply about the sufferings of very ordinary people. Each story in this collection is a discovery.
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
Solidly enjoyable tales.
After reading Saunders' A Swim in the Pond, it was impossible for me to listen to these stories without thinking about his dissection of those Swim stories. And having that train of thought absolutely improved each of these short stories for me. They are brilliantly written and the narration is spot on. (Hint... you should ABSOLUTELY listen to this book... the narration makes the stories better, if that is possible!) I enjoyed all the stories, and while I loved some more than others, they all made me stop and think.
If you love George Saunders writing, you will love Liberation Day. If you have never read any Saunders, I recommend that you read A Swim in the Pond before you read this... really. He is a brilliant teacher and his Swim Master Class is so helpful for ALL short story reading!
I highly recommend Liberation Day!
If you love George Saunders writing, you will love Liberation Day. If you have never read any Saunders, I recommend that you read A Swim in the Pond before you read this... really. He is a brilliant teacher and his Swim Master Class is so helpful for ALL short story reading!
I highly recommend Liberation Day!
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A few themes I’ve noticed repeated across Saunders’ work that are worthy of more thought:
-slavery and human bondage. In a capitalistic system, when all else fails we must sell ourselves: whether as decorations or speakers or political fodder. Worthy of more thought that his novel is focused on the time of Lincoln
-consent; in keeping with the above point. Is it enough to get someone’s consent in a system that gives them not great viable alternatives? Is consent enough to overcome ethics if that consent is in some way reversed or required or the memory of that consent erased?
-disability. This may be a reach, but many of Saunders’ characters are either experiencing natural or imposed physical or mental disabilities (this may be the wrong term for this; I apologize). The fact that sometimes those characters are our inputs for the world is fascinating and worthy of more thought.
-messiness of humanity. Solzhenitsyn said the line between good and evil goes through every human heart and I don’t know if another author who portrays that quite as well as Saunders. There is only one story in this collection that has a main character make a conventionally heroic action at the climax (at least in my memory of these stories). The rest do a wonderful job of continually making me reset my initial judgment of the characters due to how they act or think.
All in all, another delightful / disturbing collection from Saunders.
-slavery and human bondage. In a capitalistic system, when all else fails we must sell ourselves: whether as decorations or speakers or political fodder. Worthy of more thought that his novel is focused on the time of Lincoln
-consent; in keeping with the above point. Is it enough to get someone’s consent in a system that gives them not great viable alternatives? Is consent enough to overcome ethics if that consent is in some way reversed or required or the memory of that consent erased?
-disability. This may be a reach, but many of Saunders’ characters are either experiencing natural or imposed physical or mental disabilities (this may be the wrong term for this; I apologize). The fact that sometimes those characters are our inputs for the world is fascinating and worthy of more thought.
-messiness of humanity. Solzhenitsyn said the line between good and evil goes through every human heart and I don’t know if another author who portrays that quite as well as Saunders. There is only one story in this collection that has a main character make a conventionally heroic action at the climax (at least in my memory of these stories). The rest do a wonderful job of continually making me reset my initial judgment of the characters due to how they act or think.
All in all, another delightful / disturbing collection from Saunders.
Good? the narrative voices are really funny. in some stories stilted? and strange? in others absurdly self-righteous? he uses question marks liberally. the way the narrators talk is eerily similar to the Voice In My Mind!
but the most unique one was the one in "Elliot Spencer", where the fragmentary speech of the mind-wiped narrator has a surprisingly moving poetic effect:
Then see her so clear: Flour in hair Mouth going O at sight of icepants Which I am to leave by door on Hefty bag, spread out Here is Vixen Our dog! Sniffing my icepants which I am no longer which lie now on Hefty bag In shape of boy doing dance one leg bent.
i'd definitely read his other collections! the humour is Exactly It? Exactly What I Like?
but the most unique one was the one in "Elliot Spencer", where the fragmentary speech of the mind-wiped narrator has a surprisingly moving poetic effect:
Then see her so clear: Flour in hair Mouth going O at sight of icepants Which I am to leave by door on Hefty bag, spread out Here is Vixen Our dog! Sniffing my icepants which I am no longer which lie now on Hefty bag In shape of boy doing dance one leg bent.
i'd definitely read his other collections! the humour is Exactly It? Exactly What I Like?
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Really liked “The Mom of Bold Action”