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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
To someone who has never read Saunders, it may seem hyperbolic to always give the man 5 stars. And yet…
He is America’s greatest living writer, and this collection is, in my opinion, second only to Tenth of December. Surprisingly emotional and moving. Always hilarious.
Highlights include “My Flamboyant Grandson”, “Bohemians”, “CommComm”, and “Christmas”.
There is, however, one absolute dud of a story. “93990” is good, and would be an achievement for most any other author out there. It is devoid of Saunders’ distinct voice and fingerprints, and does not stack up with the rest of his oeuvre.
He is America’s greatest living writer, and this collection is, in my opinion, second only to Tenth of December. Surprisingly emotional and moving. Always hilarious.
Highlights include “My Flamboyant Grandson”, “Bohemians”, “CommComm”, and “Christmas”.
There is, however, one absolute dud of a story. “93990” is good, and would be an achievement for most any other author out there. It is devoid of Saunders’ distinct voice and fingerprints, and does not stack up with the rest of his oeuvre.
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Definitely his weirdest collection (which is saying something) and definitely not my favorite of his collections, but still highly entertaining, thought provoking, and worth reading. My quest to consume every word Saunders has ever written continues.
I’m not big on sci-fi, but Vonnegut and Saunders are two writers who do it funny enough and literary enough for me where I can find it hard to deny. I’ll outline two stories below that I enjoyed from this collection:
My Flamboyant Grandson is a hopeful story of speculative fiction that, in its short length, is densely packed with suggestions of consumerism gone wild — for example, shoes that track one’s behavior and target them with ads in public or officers (“Citizen Helpers”) who monitor people who try to avoid these ads — that seem almost fresh out of a Vonnegut story. Saunders’ mix of satire and speculative fiction is actually almost eerily similar to Vonnegut, but not in a way that seems to imitate or overtly pay homage to him. If anything, Saunders’ story telling is just as tight (if not tighter) and perhaps even just as funny. This tale is about a grandfather trying to accept his potentially gay grandson by bringing him to NYC to see a dance performance, and a scuffle with one of the aforementioned officers after the grandfather takes his shoes off. Despite getting a hefty fine, the excursion is a success and the boy transforms from insecure into confident, giving the grandfather hope that America will look more like his grandson than it does the current consumerist nightmare. In a way, Saunders flips the usual generational conflict on its head; the old man in the story is dissatisfied with the capitalist nightmare he’s living in and is looking toward his gay grandson as some sort of symbol of possibility/change. Saunders seems to be commenting on the positivity of diversity, that atypicality is OK because it diverges from the status quo; that these divergences are necessary to accept to avoid a corporate-run society.
Christmas is a well-crafted story that explores race inequality and white guilt. I actually think I prefer Saunders when he taps into this kind of social commentary more than speculative fiction (although he tends to combine the two almost always). The narrator witnesses his black coworker (sometime in the late stages of segregation — 60s I suppose) gamble away his money and then his bonus check (sunk cost fallacy) to his white employer before Christmas, effectively leading to him canceling Christmas for his hyperbolic family of 14 children. The story has some wackiness signature of Saunders, but it’s mostly a pretty sad episode that showcases and symbolizes the “stacked odds” against blacks during this period of discrimination. The white narrator (fittingly, The Great White Dope after being initially called The Great White Hope) offers his bonus check to his coworker, but he refuses of course. At the end of the story, the narrator escapes his home town and blue collar work and obtains a prestigious job in the science field. Presumably John, the coworker, is still moving tar (he’s not allowed to work on roofs despite his apparent skill). There’s nothing exceptionally deep about Christmas, but it does well at reflecting how blacks were (/are) institutionally disadvantaged and taken advantage of while whites have opportunities for social mobility. It follows suit of the other left-leaning stories that all tackle some social issue.
Other than these there were a few other good stories, but for many of them — while I found Saunder’s writing to be quite strong and his ideas original — I had some trouble connecting with his plots and characters. I feel like sometimes his worlds are written “too immersively” for someone like me who is not fond of sci-fi and parsing out what the made up terminology means can be frustrating. I find that a turn off, but no knock to Saunders. Not unlike Vonnegut, there are times when the themes of the stories really connect and the humor and pacing comes together for a euphoric experience, but many other times where a story can drag and be pretty boring for me. Even with some highly original ideas, like writing a story that takes place inside of a TV puppet program, are just too detached from reality in the way that I like to engage with it for me to maintain interest.
My Flamboyant Grandson is a hopeful story of speculative fiction that, in its short length, is densely packed with suggestions of consumerism gone wild — for example, shoes that track one’s behavior and target them with ads in public or officers (“Citizen Helpers”) who monitor people who try to avoid these ads — that seem almost fresh out of a Vonnegut story. Saunders’ mix of satire and speculative fiction is actually almost eerily similar to Vonnegut, but not in a way that seems to imitate or overtly pay homage to him. If anything, Saunders’ story telling is just as tight (if not tighter) and perhaps even just as funny. This tale is about a grandfather trying to accept his potentially gay grandson by bringing him to NYC to see a dance performance, and a scuffle with one of the aforementioned officers after the grandfather takes his shoes off. Despite getting a hefty fine, the excursion is a success and the boy transforms from insecure into confident, giving the grandfather hope that America will look more like his grandson than it does the current consumerist nightmare. In a way, Saunders flips the usual generational conflict on its head; the old man in the story is dissatisfied with the capitalist nightmare he’s living in and is looking toward his gay grandson as some sort of symbol of possibility/change. Saunders seems to be commenting on the positivity of diversity, that atypicality is OK because it diverges from the status quo; that these divergences are necessary to accept to avoid a corporate-run society.
Christmas is a well-crafted story that explores race inequality and white guilt. I actually think I prefer Saunders when he taps into this kind of social commentary more than speculative fiction (although he tends to combine the two almost always). The narrator witnesses his black coworker (sometime in the late stages of segregation — 60s I suppose) gamble away his money and then his bonus check (sunk cost fallacy) to his white employer before Christmas, effectively leading to him canceling Christmas for his hyperbolic family of 14 children. The story has some wackiness signature of Saunders, but it’s mostly a pretty sad episode that showcases and symbolizes the “stacked odds” against blacks during this period of discrimination. The white narrator (fittingly, The Great White Dope after being initially called The Great White Hope) offers his bonus check to his coworker, but he refuses of course. At the end of the story, the narrator escapes his home town and blue collar work and obtains a prestigious job in the science field. Presumably John, the coworker, is still moving tar (he’s not allowed to work on roofs despite his apparent skill). There’s nothing exceptionally deep about Christmas, but it does well at reflecting how blacks were (/are) institutionally disadvantaged and taken advantage of while whites have opportunities for social mobility. It follows suit of the other left-leaning stories that all tackle some social issue.
Other than these there were a few other good stories, but for many of them — while I found Saunder’s writing to be quite strong and his ideas original — I had some trouble connecting with his plots and characters. I feel like sometimes his worlds are written “too immersively” for someone like me who is not fond of sci-fi and parsing out what the made up terminology means can be frustrating. I find that a turn off, but no knock to Saunders. Not unlike Vonnegut, there are times when the themes of the stories really connect and the humor and pacing comes together for a euphoric experience, but many other times where a story can drag and be pretty boring for me. Even with some highly original ideas, like writing a story that takes place inside of a TV puppet program, are just too detached from reality in the way that I like to engage with it for me to maintain interest.
This collection of short stories drives the point across, evokes a strong feeling - of powerlessness, hopelessness; so surreal, all the way through it reminded me, how we can do anything with words, as far as our imaginations allow, sometimes it's scary; funny, and dark, but does it have to be so outlandish, disturbing, macabre even, I kept asking myself, do I need to know this, to see what I won't be able to unsee just to understand what is being said? At times it felt too much for too long. (And did all the felonry had to be from Baltic states? I mean, really? Why?) Though this applies only to a few stories, however long. On the whole, it's an interesting book, original, intimidating, inventive - on capitalism, consumerism, advertising, television, conformity, violence/cruelty, the world going mad. Which might be not so surreal after all.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There's something wrong with Saunders. Books this horrifying shouldn't be so funny.
you can tell it's one of Saunders' earlier works bc the stories feel a little unformed and sometimes rush into over-the-top absurdity that doesn't do much for the narrative or the psychology of the characters or the story's meaning. but it's still a brilliant collection
Last week I found myself in a bit of a pickle. I was supposed to have spent my summer tracking down supplementary readings for a unit on media manipulation, but as of two days before my due date I hadn't found one single thing. Honestly, I hadn't even bothered to try. In short, I was screwed. Fortunately, a friend came to my rescue by suggesting In Persuasion Nation, a collection of short stories by George Saunders, and it proved perfect for my needs. (And thank God I can read a book in a day. Way to cut things close, me.) I wasn't planning on reviewing this book since I read it for work, however I really enjoyed it, and so what the heck - we're mixing work with pleasure over here today.
The cover of In Persuasion Nation depicts a man leaning over to sniff the solitary flower standing in the center of a wasteland - an appropriate image for a collection of stories whose protagonists are often searching for something real, pure and true in a plastic world that values consumerism over humanity. Often humorous, rather quirky and usually disturbing, Saunders' stories serve as a sort of protest of our corporate culture, warning what we very well may one day become if we choose to continue on our current path. The heroes in these stories are the misfits of this modern world. There's Brad, whose life is a sitcom which he is in danger of being written off of once he finds he can no longer continue smiling along with the laugh track, ignoring the world's ills. In the title story, an army of frustrated characters from smug television commercials rise up and refuse to continue being humiliated while hawking Ding-Dongs, Mac and Cheese and Doritos. And, in what I thought was the best story of the lot, there's Jon, an orphan who's spent nearly his entire life as a member of a product focus group, knowing no other way of communicating his feelings but through advertisements.
While some of these stories succeed better than others, the overall collection proves timely, affecting, inventive and highly entertaining. Like the best satirists, Saunders is thought-provoking, but with heart. Fans of Vonnegut and Pynchon should approve.
The cover of In Persuasion Nation depicts a man leaning over to sniff the solitary flower standing in the center of a wasteland - an appropriate image for a collection of stories whose protagonists are often searching for something real, pure and true in a plastic world that values consumerism over humanity. Often humorous, rather quirky and usually disturbing, Saunders' stories serve as a sort of protest of our corporate culture, warning what we very well may one day become if we choose to continue on our current path. The heroes in these stories are the misfits of this modern world. There's Brad, whose life is a sitcom which he is in danger of being written off of once he finds he can no longer continue smiling along with the laugh track, ignoring the world's ills. In the title story, an army of frustrated characters from smug television commercials rise up and refuse to continue being humiliated while hawking Ding-Dongs, Mac and Cheese and Doritos. And, in what I thought was the best story of the lot, there's Jon, an orphan who's spent nearly his entire life as a member of a product focus group, knowing no other way of communicating his feelings but through advertisements.
While some of these stories succeed better than others, the overall collection proves timely, affecting, inventive and highly entertaining. Like the best satirists, Saunders is thought-provoking, but with heart. Fans of Vonnegut and Pynchon should approve.