OK, well maybe now I get it.
Just finished ‘CivilWarLand in Bad Decline’, the first George Saunders
short story collection (1996). I raved about the
latest highly lauded collection ‘Tenth of December’ (2012), and I wondered where I
had been to have missed him totally for so many years. Now I understand that while the Saunders of
2012 has lots in common with the Saunders of 1996, there are also striking
differences that put his recent work squarely in the mainstream, whereas the
earlier collection sits closer to the fringe.
Yes, there are many similarities, many common strands. But the earlier work relies more heavily on
futuristic sci-fi post-apocalyptic scenarios, and those earlier stories downplay the straightforward human
aspects in favor of a more narrowly focused hard-edged view.
The later stories feel softer and exhibit more ambiguous empathy for multiple viewpoints within a single
story; they are more deeply rooted in a more universal world of human
emotion. The earlier stories are more
insistently ‘out there’, more experimental, more cynical, and for the most part
less rewarding.
Nonetheless in the early collection there is much memorable
writing. Some pages are stunning,
indeed. Some made me laugh out loud, and in others I just plain delighted in Saunders' virtuosic command. I particularly enjoyed ‘The 400-Pound CEO’. It’s heart-breaking, and I savored that. But no single story in the early
collection matches the emotional breadth shown in almost every story of the later
collection.
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