Tenth of December

I love reading Saunders and having followed him from CivilWarLand and Pastoralia. The introduction to this collection of short stories is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand and appreciate his process. It acknowledges the influences on Saunders (Hemingway, Carver and Vonnegut) and talks about how the writer has to ensure that between the reader entering and leaving the “black box” that it is their creation. It behoves them to put in the current ingredients to ensure that they are changed by what they have read. Saunders does this in spades, as is evidenced by the near-universal praise he receives. The plaudits also reflect the subject matter: his take on a very strange (some may say prescient) near-future America. Think of it as capitalism gone slightly absurdly wrong. There is mordant humour but deep poignancy in all that Saunders writes. His characters are really trying to succeed in life, but like all humans they are deeply flawed and inherently fallible. Readers know not whether to laugh or cry. Maybe both. 9/10.

By George Saunders