A review by jnzllwgr
Civilwarland in Bad Decline: Stories and a Novella by George Saunders

5.0

Not sure where I first was made aware of Saunders. Hence, this, his first collection of shorts. I’m all in baby. These are tremendous. Call me rudimentary, but reading this was like walking in on a monthly dinner engagement that’s been going on for years between Bukowski, Vonnegut and Sedaris. The novella, Bounty, is practically cued up for adaptation as a Coen Brothers film. Yea, yea, I’m drawing comparisons for a writer whose has a peerless voice and injected new life into American literature — I’m grasping at straws here to provide some flavor profiles. This republished paperback version had an Author’s Note in the back that was a bonus story itself (here, Saunders mentions Hemingway’s outsized influence). These stories are fun to read: deeply serious and hilarious at the same time. The weight of bad luck on our marginalized protagonists is heavy and the humor may make it appear flippant. It’s certainly post-modern. It’s captures an essence to dehumanization of western society. The wit slightly distances things well. It toughens the characters a bit, entrenches them to their situation as a matter-of-fact. Each story has a ‘theme-park’ as part of the context; it’s a curious world building within world building. I admire most the direct efficiency in which the story is told. No muss, no fuss. Extraneous details removed. Anecdotal, even. Like a painting by Motherwell, Still, Rothko or Newman, it’s what the reader conjures and imposes upon the author’s canvas that creates relief. I thought of McCarthy’s reductionist ‘The Road’ when reading Bounty, in particular — which I think of as an extended haiku. I’m on to a biography of Lou Reed now. Seemed appropriately linked.