teariffic1 's review for:

Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders

5.0

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"Liberation Day" contains several short stories that I feel are masterful, perhaps even masterpieces. Saunders continues to astonish. These stories are all set in alternate futures, in varied formats, which I feel kept them fresh. Moreover, I particularly appreciated that Saunders paid special attention to writing multiple short stories from the viewpoints of elderly individuals, who had different voices and POVs than their younger counterparts. Memory erasure and political tensions are common themes across these stories as well. The titular "Liberation Day" describes a world wherein people have their memory erased to serve as performers for other rich individuals; the narrator (an erased Speaker) enjoys his life until rebellious individuals looking to free the Speakers and Singers trigger the memory of his former life, and his rebellious love affair with the rich mistress of the house is quashed (he is left bereft and hopeless. In "The Mom of Bold Action," Saunders considers what it means to be a good person, and a good parent, through the eyes of a mother who wants to protect her husband and son from the small ways which guilt intrudes upon your consciousness, as hard as you try to do good. In "Love Letter," Saunders writes a letter from grandfather to grandson about how he tried to prevent the new government from rising, but failed, and now advises him to accept the status quo for his own safety, even as he struggles with his desire to rebel. (This, to me, was the least interesting premise, but I also loved the general conceit of the story.) In "A Thing At Work," Saunders touches upon class politics through the lens of water-cooler culture. (Class politics are another theme of these works.) "Sparrow" is about love, though an entirely unremarkable sort, while "Ghoul" was an entirely different surreal love story. "Ghoul" imagined a world in which individuals were relegated to their various "positions" in Hell, acting the part of demon or "spearer," and performing for endless Visitors, all while simultaneously living in dark and decrepit conditions underground. Yet these conditions can not be acknowledged; if someone dares acknowledge them, they are beaten to death by their comrades. However, our narrator reveals that Visitors never truly come, and through the deaths of his friends comes to understand that the place has no "Egress Spout" through which Visitors will suddenly emerge... but nobody knows that but him. Knowing his death is soon to come, he prints out evidence that the Spout does not exist and leaves it everywhere around "Hell..." and the story leaves us waiting for his fate. I really enjoyed this one. It was terribly surreal but also amazingly immersive. "Mother's Day" focused on the lives of two aging mothers with their own sets of issues (I didn't love this one, to be honest). "Elliot Spencer," however, was my favorite. It follows a man Greg, 89, who wakes up with no memory and is taught sets of very simple words ("idiot") to hurl at others when commanded to do so by his singular "friend," Jet. As the story progresses, Greg remembers that he is actually Elliot Spencer, and though he lived most of his life as an alcoholic, he loved his mom and his childhood friends. He was brainwashed to serve as a political pawn in protests. Understanding that he is a new man, he escapes (undramatically, he wanders into the woods) from Jet and his former "friends," hoping to make a life of his own, all while understanding that he is old and must die soon. This story was heartbreaking - particularly when Elliot learns what "death" is from Jet, and understands that his mom is dead. The book concludes with "My House," a moving mediation on age, values, and money.