鈥淟iberation Day,鈥� by George Saunders (Random House)
George Saunders is back with a new collection of short stories that feature his usual dystopian worlds and heartland characters whose lives and language have been fractured by social and economic pressures they barely understand.
In the title story, 鈥淟iberation Day,鈥� the protagonists are rich enough to afford an 鈥渆ntertainment center鈥� where less fortunate humans whose memories have been wiped clean are pinioned to a wall to reenact historical dramas like the Battle of the Little Bighorn for the amusement of the owners鈥� wealthy friends.
The premise recycles a conceit he used a decade ago in 鈥淭he Semplica Girl Diaries,鈥� in which young women from poor countries were trafficked as lawn decorations to status-conscious American homeowners in a grotesque parody of keeping up with the Joneses.
In this collection of nine stories, his first since 2013鈥檚 鈥淭enth of December,鈥� Saunders鈥� outrage runs deep, and at least a couple of them, including 鈥淟ove Letter鈥� and 鈥淭he Mom of Bold Action,鈥� can be read as parables of our current political situation.
In the latter, a small-town mom who fancies herself a writer and lives in 鈥渁 region of failing strip malls and three lavish mega-churches in a row,鈥� flirts with vigilantism when her sweet but dorky son gets pushed to the ground by a mentally disturbed homeless man. Ultimately, Saunders, for whom kindness is a paramount virtue, pulls her back from the brink and restores her moral compass, albeit imperfectly.
In 鈥淟ove Letter,鈥� which is set in the near future during the fourth administration of a Trump-like family, a doting grandfather advises his beloved grandson to steer clear of political activism even as he questions his and his wife鈥檚 own complacency during a 鈥渃ritical period鈥� when democracy was being dismantled. Instead, they did jigsaw puzzles together while the TV blared 鈥渢his litany of things had never before happened.鈥�
鈥淚t did not seem,鈥� he writes, 鈥渢hat someone so clownish could disrupt something so noble and time-tested and seemingly strong, something that had been with us literally every day of our lives. We had taken, in other words, a profound gift for granted. Did not know the gift was a fluke, a chimera, a wonderful accident of consensus and mutual understanding.鈥�
In last year鈥檚 鈥淎 Swim in a Pond in the Rain,鈥� Saunders offered up a master class in fiction writing by analyzing seven short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Gogol and Tolstoy. You could buy that book if you want to understand what made those stories great. Or you could simply read the stories in this one.
Ann Levin, The Associated Press
