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A review by ridgewaygirl
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
5.0
Tenth of December is one of the best book of short stories I have read, so I was excited to go back and read George Saunders's first collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. It isn't a strong or as varied as the later book, but it is interesting to see some of the themes repeat. He's got a wild imagination, which, in CivilWarLand centers much more on the theme park in a dystopian world idea. The title story is set in a historical park which has a full-time ornithologist to make sure the birds flying around are the same birds of two hundred years ago, but is so sloppy it has Chinese coolies building the Erie Canal. Then there is The Wavemaker Falters, a melancholic story involving accidental deaths, wayward nuns and several ghosts, including one who sometimes picks his nose. Bounty, the longest story in the book, and begins in a theme park set in a world which is divided between "normals" and "flaweds," who have no rights at all.
At the end of the book, Saunders explains his fascination with theme parks, telling us that when he put a theme park in a story, it removed the story into the realm of the comic, and ensured that his writing wouldn't sink under the weight of itself. I found Saunders' tale of how he became the writer he is one of the most powerful and interesting parts of this book.
A young girl gets extremely worked up on the honeymoon and the next thing she knows her new husband is scampering into the kitchen for a zucchini squash. Even through my crying he insisted, saying it would bring us closer together. Imagine the humiliation of being just eighteen and having to go to your family doctor with an infection difficult to explain. Finally he found it in a plant book.
But more than the theme parks, the common thread running through Saunders' stories here are the main characters. They're losers, both through their own misguided efforts and due to circumstances beyond their control. You can't help but feel for them, even as Saunders never allows the reader to forget their flaws. They are also men who love a woman, whether their sister, wife or repulsed co-worker, and much of each story revolves around those relationships; flawed, doomed or nonexistent though they may be.
If I could see her one last time I'd say: Thanks very much for dying at the worst possible moment and leaving me holding the bag of guilt. I'd say: If you had to die, couldn't you have done it when we were getting along?
While I would suggest that a reader who has never read anything by George Saunders begin with the superlative Tenth of December, if you are already familiar with his off-center view of the world, you will not want to miss reading his debut collection.
At the end of the book, Saunders explains his fascination with theme parks, telling us that when he put a theme park in a story, it removed the story into the realm of the comic, and ensured that his writing wouldn't sink under the weight of itself. I found Saunders' tale of how he became the writer he is one of the most powerful and interesting parts of this book.
A young girl gets extremely worked up on the honeymoon and the next thing she knows her new husband is scampering into the kitchen for a zucchini squash. Even through my crying he insisted, saying it would bring us closer together. Imagine the humiliation of being just eighteen and having to go to your family doctor with an infection difficult to explain. Finally he found it in a plant book.
But more than the theme parks, the common thread running through Saunders' stories here are the main characters. They're losers, both through their own misguided efforts and due to circumstances beyond their control. You can't help but feel for them, even as Saunders never allows the reader to forget their flaws. They are also men who love a woman, whether their sister, wife or repulsed co-worker, and much of each story revolves around those relationships; flawed, doomed or nonexistent though they may be.
If I could see her one last time I'd say: Thanks very much for dying at the worst possible moment and leaving me holding the bag of guilt. I'd say: If you had to die, couldn't you have done it when we were getting along?
While I would suggest that a reader who has never read anything by George Saunders begin with the superlative Tenth of December, if you are already familiar with his off-center view of the world, you will not want to miss reading his debut collection.