A review by ondrobondro
Liberation Day by George Saunders

4.0

An uncontroversial statement I hope but there are stronger stories in here and weaker ones.

This collection in particular feels indebted to Beckett - I felt some strong ties to him in particular with the title story. That sense of unending despair in the face of absurdity, and characters trapped inside of their own minds (either of their own making, or seemingly the making of the world they inhabit).

I think I enjoy Saunders’s work the most when, under all of the heady conceptual stuff, there’s heart and soul at the root of it. It’s one of the reasons I liked Lincoln in the Bardo so much. Same reason I enjoyed (the story) so much. Not all of his stories quite hit me in the same way, but those in this collection that do are some of his best for me. Elliott Spencer in particular is magnificent - probably my favourite of his, full stop.