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Liked It “Compelling, smart short-stories about our broken world where everyone is advertised to, messaged and controlled by a culture marketing goods, images and ideas. Saunders is smart and a fabulous writer.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Compelling, smart short-stories about our broken world where everyone is advertised to, messaged and controlled by a culture marketing goods, images and ideas. Saunders is smart and a fabulous writer.”
Karen M wrote this review Sunday, November 8 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I like this author's odd look at contemporary American culture in an offbeat weird type of way. Good stuff. Reminds me of Flannery O'Connor.”
Mike Mather wrote this review Thursday, January 29 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“This man is hilarious. George Saunders writes satire better than anyone else in the contemporary market. His stories make you laugh, think, and laugh. I loved "Jon," "My Flamboyant Grandson," and "93990."”
Nicole B wrote this review Tuesday, May 20 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“There comes that phase in life when, tired of losing, you decide to stop losing, then continue losing. Then you decide to really stop losing, and continue losing. The losing goes on and on so long you begin to watch with curiosity, wondering how low you can go.
Mary Lynette wrote this review Saturday, December 29 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
--From "Christmas" ”
“What I like about George Saunders is what I like about most writers I like. The details. Not details like the husband’s haircut or the wife’s smile. The details of expression and meaning that, for Saunders on a good day, almost float off the page. For me, if a writer can keep you hanging on sentence by sentence, the weightier movements of character and plot fade in importance. Saunders keeps me hanging on with a richness of ideas and a kind of fluid grace in his imagery. Yes, these are stories and things happen that add up to something, sort of, but the real joy happens line by line.
Joe W wrote this review Friday, December 28 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
At the macro level Saunders creates bizarre and funny worlds where celebrity teenagers, implanted with microchips, spend their lives evaluating marketing campaigns. Where a sitcom character’s routines are upended when he unexpectedly begins to develop a moral conscience. Where a polar bear with an axe in its head asks the crucial question: “Was selling what all that suffering was about?”
Many of the stories take place in a near future or alternate present in which technology and marketing have become ubiquitous and oppressive. These stories could be thought of as speculative fiction or, stretching it, science fiction. But the technology is unimportant to Saunders. What is important is how we have surrendered to it and, as one character realizes too late, wasted our lives on accumulation, trivia, self-protection, and vanity. ”
“hype® egg headed baby clones,
mundivagant wrote this review Friday, December 28 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
citizen helpe®s, p®ivacy ta®p disguised
ga®gadisks, samish-sex ma®®iage,
pet co. exte®minations, monkeyed millig®ams,
®eality show cannibalism, sentimental,
wate®logged, battleg®ound co®pses, the
g®een t®iangula® co®ne® of a dese®ted
slap-o-wack ba® and a suicidal talking dog —
giving new meaning to mad avenue--
”“Saunders IS a goddamned genius!!”
Sandra wrote this review Tuesday, November 6 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“The guy's a freaking genius. No, an actual genius. He just won the MacArthur genius grant last year. At any rate, I adore these stories -- mostly the last one, "Com Com". (Comm Comm?) It has such beauty without being sentimental. He earns the ending. It makes me boo hoo like a baby every time I read it.”
JediLibrarian wrote this review Tuesday, July 17 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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