Publication
Amsterdam Contact 2001
ISBN
9025417310 / 9789025417314
Language
Collection
Description
Fiction. Literature. Short Stories. HTML:A stunning collection including the story "Sea Oak," from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo and the story collection Tenth of December, a 2013 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction. Hailed by Thomas Pynchon as "graceful, dark, authentic, and funny," George Saunders gives us, in his inventive and beloved voice, this bestselling collection of stories set against a warped, hilarious, and terrifyingly recognizable American landscape.
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Subjects
User reviews
LibraryThing member gbill
Sharp satire here, sometimes brutally so, and endlessly readable. Saunders touches on his usual themes: consumerism, the pathos of humble little lives, and man’s cruelty to his fellow man via capitalism and technology. It feels a bit much to call out 3 of just 6 stories as favorites, but it’s
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in keeping with how strong this collection is, and I found myself liking Pastoralia, Sea Oak, and The Barber’s Unhappiness the most. Saunders’ writing is brilliant and funny; this is one to check out. Show Less
LibraryThing member hemlokgang
George Saunders' reputation as a pre-eminent short story writer remains in tact with me. His stories are unique, witty, sometimes shocking, and always engaging. This collection includes a man living as a caveman in a museum exhibit, a matriarch returned from the grave, a shy man wanting a
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relationship despite a domineering mother, and more. The audio edition has excellent narration, too. Very, very good! Show Less
LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
George Saunders must surely be the master of the excoriating inner monologue. Across these six stories, his typically sad, misfit, life-bludgeoned characters find fault with themselves (and others, though usually that eventually comes round to self-criticism). It is as though Saunders has looked
The sad characters in Saunders’ stories most often have tedious, mind-numbingly inane, bureaucratically mangled jobs. In the long opening story, “Pastoralia”, the unnamed narrator spends his days as a caveman. He is working at a futuristic theme park with live action recreations of human history. He and the woman portraying his cave wife, Janet, must follow a strict code of cave behaviour throughout the day. They’ve both been at this job a long time. And the theme park isn’t doing especially well, so very few guests poke their heads in to witness the lives of cave people. Just as well as Janet is usually filing her nails or speaking in English (which is not allowed). To be forced to endure such humiliating work might be bad enough but the indignity is magnified by cost-cutting, self-serving management intent on firing as many of the staff as possible to rescue the bottom line. Every person we encounter is desperate about the few dollars that their employment can bring in for their families. Most would do anything to keep their jobs, including ratting out the poor behaviour of their peers. It is a sad and sorry world and Saunders drags us through it by the hair (caveman style). And it has no end. Because, I suppose, life, he is suggesting, has pretty much been like this since the days of our earliest ancestors. Despite its light tone and embarrassingly awkward moments for the characters, the effect is chilling.
The remaining stories, although they share satirical features with “Pastoralia”, tend toward the more hopeful endings mentioned above. It is as though we are seeing Saunders himself progress as a thinker, a writer, a humanist. In the final story of the collection, “The Falls”, the principal narrator, another self-excoriating character named Morse (which might just as well be “morose”), is dragging himself home at the end of another painfully long day at work. No need to detail his particular squalor. What is peculiar here is his action at the very end. Despite all of his convincing of himself not to do it, he goes ahead and does something wonderful. It is so startling that you might wonder whether Saunders himself was surprised by this ending. It really is remarkable.
Every story here is worthy of numerous readings. Heartily recommended.
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around him, picked out the saddest, loneliest looking people he can find and then set himself the task of imagining their inner lives. Their inner lives, it turns out, are just about as sad and lonely as their outer lives. Long passages of passionate self-examination and scab picking are then punctuated by brief actions or exchanges involving others. What is most surprising, however, is that these desperately sad characters usually end up doing something brave, self-sacrificing, or noteworthy. Not that anyone notices, or cares, or cares to notice. Except that Saunders himself notices and through him so do we.The sad characters in Saunders’ stories most often have tedious, mind-numbingly inane, bureaucratically mangled jobs. In the long opening story, “Pastoralia”, the unnamed narrator spends his days as a caveman. He is working at a futuristic theme park with live action recreations of human history. He and the woman portraying his cave wife, Janet, must follow a strict code of cave behaviour throughout the day. They’ve both been at this job a long time. And the theme park isn’t doing especially well, so very few guests poke their heads in to witness the lives of cave people. Just as well as Janet is usually filing her nails or speaking in English (which is not allowed). To be forced to endure such humiliating work might be bad enough but the indignity is magnified by cost-cutting, self-serving management intent on firing as many of the staff as possible to rescue the bottom line. Every person we encounter is desperate about the few dollars that their employment can bring in for their families. Most would do anything to keep their jobs, including ratting out the poor behaviour of their peers. It is a sad and sorry world and Saunders drags us through it by the hair (caveman style). And it has no end. Because, I suppose, life, he is suggesting, has pretty much been like this since the days of our earliest ancestors. Despite its light tone and embarrassingly awkward moments for the characters, the effect is chilling.
The remaining stories, although they share satirical features with “Pastoralia”, tend toward the more hopeful endings mentioned above. It is as though we are seeing Saunders himself progress as a thinker, a writer, a humanist. In the final story of the collection, “The Falls”, the principal narrator, another self-excoriating character named Morse (which might just as well be “morose”), is dragging himself home at the end of another painfully long day at work. No need to detail his particular squalor. What is peculiar here is his action at the very end. Despite all of his convincing of himself not to do it, he goes ahead and does something wonderful. It is so startling that you might wonder whether Saunders himself was surprised by this ending. It really is remarkable.
Every story here is worthy of numerous readings. Heartily recommended.
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LibraryThing member nancyjean19
George Saunders is one of my absolute favorite writers. I love the way he captures the human experience so accurately within the context of strange, quirky stories. This collection had a few stories that I didn't really connect with, but I loved Pastoralia, Winky and especially Sea Oak. The
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dialogue in Sea Oak was so perfect, and so was his description of a shady apartment complex and the yearning to get out. They just had to wait to hear it from... well I don't want to spoil it. Read George Saunders for an emotional education! (whatever yes that was a Love Actually reference) Show Less
LibraryThing member bragan
A collection of one novella -- the title story, which features a guy whose job is pretending to be a caveman in some kind of supposedly educational themed attraction and his less-than-enthusiastic work partner -- and five shorter pieces. All of them feature ordinary (or, honestly, pretty pathetic)
It's great stuff. The only one that didn't completely grab me was "Winky," which starts, I think, much more strongly than it ends. But, really, even Saunders' not-quite-on-target stuff is better than a lot of folks' best efforts.
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working people with difficult (or, honestly, pretty pathetic) lives, all of them have that wonderfully off-kilter quality Saunders excels at so thoroughly, and all of them sit right at some kind of weird intersection between the hilarious and the deeply sad, although some tilt more strongly in one direction or the other.It's great stuff. The only one that didn't completely grab me was "Winky," which starts, I think, much more strongly than it ends. But, really, even Saunders' not-quite-on-target stuff is better than a lot of folks' best efforts.
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LibraryThing member NeedMoreShelves
I'm really more of a 3.5 on this one, but I feel generous today, so I'm going to officially record this rating as a 4. Because I like the darkness, the slightly skewed sense of humor, the obvious grain of salt with which the author looks at modern society.
But it also seemed a little repetitive -
And why were all the women in the stories so unpleasant? Granted, none of his characters are particularly likable, but really the only marginally pleasant woman is the fat one that the creepy barber wants to force into working out? That was unsettling.
This is probably a collection I would recommend reading over a period of time - so that the last story isn't quite as fresh in your mind. Standouts of the collection were the title story, Pastoralia; the pseudo-zombie tale Sea Oak; and the final, brief The Falls, which I would have loved to see be a much longer tale.
But it also seemed a little repetitive -
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like all of the stories were just variations on the same theme, which is fine, but by the end felt less fresh and more like something I'd already read before.And why were all the women in the stories so unpleasant? Granted, none of his characters are particularly likable, but really the only marginally pleasant woman is the fat one that the creepy barber wants to force into working out? That was unsettling.
This is probably a collection I would recommend reading over a period of time - so that the last story isn't quite as fresh in your mind. Standouts of the collection were the title story, Pastoralia; the pseudo-zombie tale Sea Oak; and the final, brief The Falls, which I would have loved to see be a much longer tale.
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LibraryThing member alexrichman
Saunders can be brilliantly odd with his warped versions of the modern world ... but when the setting is more realistic, the stories become rather predictable. He's an unswerving optimist when it comes to human nature, so you always know the protagonist is going to choose the 'right' path.
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Nevertheless, when he's good, he's very, very good. Show Less
LibraryThing member byebyelibrary
Saunders seems only interested in writing about two types of characters. The first is exemplified by the main character in the novella, Pastoralia, a decent sad sack stuck in a humiliating and horrible yet amusing hell. He is playing a caveman in a live exhibit in a sketchy historical theme park in
The second Saunders protagonist is even more pathetic and pitiable but without the decency. We see this character on display in the Firpo and sad Barber stories. And they are on the same predictable downward slide into more profound layers of misery. But they are without even a sliver of hope for redemption. They don't even have a clue as to why nothing for them is working. They are prideful as they are torn apart. Which makes for high humor in Saundersland.
Saunders has a clue. He sees the problem. He sees all. His characters are the exhibits in Pastoralia's sad human zoo and we are the superior tourists enjoying our tut-tuts and hand over the mouth laughter at their ironic and slapstick suffering.
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order to support his young son who is suffering a rare and debilitating disease. Things go from bad to worse for the noble sad sack, who does his best to cover for an even more pathetic co-worker/fellow actor who refuses to act the part of cavewoman 24/7. His moral stand provides him little redemption. His son only gets worse. The corporate overlords running the show turn up the heat in hell until it is white hot. End of story. The second Saunders protagonist is even more pathetic and pitiable but without the decency. We see this character on display in the Firpo and sad Barber stories. And they are on the same predictable downward slide into more profound layers of misery. But they are without even a sliver of hope for redemption. They don't even have a clue as to why nothing for them is working. They are prideful as they are torn apart. Which makes for high humor in Saundersland.
Saunders has a clue. He sees the problem. He sees all. His characters are the exhibits in Pastoralia's sad human zoo and we are the superior tourists enjoying our tut-tuts and hand over the mouth laughter at their ironic and slapstick suffering.
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LibraryThing member featherbear
Stories about people trapped by class and culture (but not race-- they all seem to be white). Frequent technique is the use of stream of consciousness day dreaming without the irrepressible optimism of Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. An unusual angle in the Sea Oak story—a personal favorite—recalls
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the Shinto belief that the spirits of ancestors and relatives function as household gods, protecting their loved ones; in this instance the revenant is literally disembodied. There is also the suggestion that mistakes made in life are the source of torment in the afterlife, and illusions—those daydreams—demean us in this life—Buddhist perhaps? On the positive side, the potential for enlightenment seems available at the end of stories like Winky and The Falls, contrasting with the illusory repetition in The Barber’s Unhappiness. Unfortunately, the novella Pastoralia comes across as heavy handed; Saunders can generate the language of corporate culture with a little too much facility. In terms of boilerplate, the lengthy blurbs in the paperback edition have a banality that almost make them part of Saunders’ fictional theme park. Show Less
LibraryThing member Algybama
More crisp and controlled than his previous work. Though I miss the sense of adventure.
LibraryThing member stillatim
One can easily read Saunders and DFW as doing something similar: taking the cynical 'postmodern' literary style/pose and turning it inside out, so you start off with the cynicism and pose and end up, either to your disgust or delight, with an intense emotional connection to these characters. But
This is particularly effective, I think, in the longer stories. In those Saunders does an amazing job of showing our non-romantic relationships, with our bosses, work-mates, family and our selves. It's easy to write a love story in which the real world has no impact; it's much harder to write about the relationships Saunders focuses on and forget that these relationships are often deformed in horrific ways by the pressures of, well, modern capitalism. A nice, if repetitive device is the violence with which the bosses and authority figures always treat the English language. In Saunders' universe, it appears, the inability to use syntax is identical with the inability to be a decent person. I think that's about right.
I love all of that: very self-aware, emotionally moving stories that are moving because of the harm the world inflicts on people rather than because of the characters being so well fleshed out that you can't help but get invested, and that show you in no uncertain terms how important syntax is to human existence.
The problem is that it's all very one note.* This is, of course, a problem for most short story writers. Saunders is almost certainly aware of it: 'Brief and Terrifying' is clearly one way out of the short-story drudge. I really hope he can find other ways out of it, but even if he can't, the three short story collections deserve a small place in the Fictioneers' Corner, wherever that might be.
*: I have a theory, motivated entirely by one line on wikipedia, which tells me that Saunders used to be a Randian. In short, he's like an ex-smoker: his attacks on modern life aren't without cause, but they might be without end.
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they're not real people! But narrative is an oppression of the real world! Oh, you are so inauthentic! But more importantly, you're a human being again. This is particularly effective, I think, in the longer stories. In those Saunders does an amazing job of showing our non-romantic relationships, with our bosses, work-mates, family and our selves. It's easy to write a love story in which the real world has no impact; it's much harder to write about the relationships Saunders focuses on and forget that these relationships are often deformed in horrific ways by the pressures of, well, modern capitalism. A nice, if repetitive device is the violence with which the bosses and authority figures always treat the English language. In Saunders' universe, it appears, the inability to use syntax is identical with the inability to be a decent person. I think that's about right.
I love all of that: very self-aware, emotionally moving stories that are moving because of the harm the world inflicts on people rather than because of the characters being so well fleshed out that you can't help but get invested, and that show you in no uncertain terms how important syntax is to human existence.
The problem is that it's all very one note.* This is, of course, a problem for most short story writers. Saunders is almost certainly aware of it: 'Brief and Terrifying' is clearly one way out of the short-story drudge. I really hope he can find other ways out of it, but even if he can't, the three short story collections deserve a small place in the Fictioneers' Corner, wherever that might be.
*: I have a theory, motivated entirely by one line on wikipedia, which tells me that Saunders used to be a Randian. In short, he's like an ex-smoker: his attacks on modern life aren't without cause, but they might be without end.
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LibraryThing member jmoncton
I have to admit when George Saunders won the National Book Award this year for Tenth of December, I thought 'who'? I picked up these short stories just to get a taste of what his writing is like. Wow - impressive. This volume is short - less than 200 pages and it's easy to devour his writing
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quickly. Really, the whole book could be read in one sitting. But I recommend you stop after each story and reflect. Although his writing is really easy to read - not pretentious and not obscure, but the message is powerful. The stories are funny, bizarre and very creative - great book to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member nivramkoorb
George Saunders is a great writer. He has written 3 short story collections and all are excellent. The main story is a novella in which the lead character is a caveman in a theme park that gets no business. Who creates that sort of story? Saunders has a great facility for creating long inner
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monologs that are very funny. His characters are people struggling on the edges of life, but he also creates rays of hope. If you are not familiar with him, then I suggest you pick up this book. It is not that long and this is someone who is very talented. Show Less
LibraryThing member pam.enser
I bought this book when it first came out. I was working in the DeWitt BN store and the author actually came in looking for his book on the shelf. Well, I couldn't find it because ALL the copies (there should still be one on the shelf!!) were in new fiction. But once I did, he was happy to see it
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there. I started it, but had a hard time getting into it. I grabbed it the last time I was at my parents' house so I'm going to try it again. Show Less
LibraryThing member ncnsstnt
Saunders writes fantastic short-stories that are funny, smart, and infinitely re-readable. They are set in an America that doesn't quite yet exist, but might be on the verge of breaking through to reality at any moment. It doesn't take long to understand where Saunders is coming from - after one
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story you either "get it" or you won't. His characters are often earnest and innocent - people just trying to make the best of this bizarre, unfair, and violent world that they live in. Above all else, though, Saunders' stories are *funny*. Show Less
LibraryThing member jlparent
This collection took a bit for me to warm to, but eventually I did. I wasn't a huge fan of the first two stories but after that, I got interested. So if you like strange satiric writings, try this collection of short stories.
LibraryThing member reganrule
No one writes as painfully optimistically the sad dreams of ordinary people quite like Saunders.
LibraryThing member bexaplex
This is a collection of stories that describe the idiom "sad sack." Saunders likes to walk on a high wire between sympathy and antipathy, so the stream-of-consciousness narration veers between sweet and pretty awful. In "The Barber's Unhappiness" you kind of hate the narrator for his shallowness,
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but then you feel badly that the shallowness hasn't gotten him anywhere. Somehow a balding middle-aged dude who overcomes an aversion to overweight women by convincing himself that he can help them lose weight is sympathetic... and there's the note of the collection. It's a head-ducking ode to the trials of the modern American white man. Show Less
LibraryThing member Dog_Ogler
Mordant cultural satire. What a clever writer Saunders is. I love him.
LibraryThing member ivan.frade
I heard about Saunders because of his new novel and decided to read his praised older short stories to get a taste of his work. Why didn't I read him before?!
Awesome stories, mixing a gritty realism with fantastic elements and a very dark sense of humor.
Awesome stories, mixing a gritty realism with fantastic elements and a very dark sense of humor.
LibraryThing member JaredOrlando
George Saunders' short stories are some of the most engaging and enjoyable that I have ever read. Pastoralia includes Sea Oak, which is possibly my favorite short of all time: macabre and with humor that only Saunders can produce.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
Short stories that are a bit weird but somehow also appealing. I found the stories to be about loneliness. Characters are those on the edge of society. Not quite making it, not quite successful. This has been on my list of books to read not only because it is a 1001 list book but also my first
Stories included, most have one O Henry Awards for short story.
1, Pastoralia" (Originally published in shorter form in The New Yorker, April 3, 2000)
2. Winky" (The New Yorker, July 28, 1997)
3. Sea Oak" (The New Yorker, December 28, 1998)
4. The End of FIRPO in the World" (The New Yorker, May 18, 1998)
5. The Barber's Unhappiness" (The New Yorker, December 20, 1999)
6. The Falls" (The New Yorker, January 22, 1996)
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encounter was Entertainment Weekly (2007) ranked the book #63 on its list of the top 100 works of literature since 1983. Stories included, most have one O Henry Awards for short story.
1, Pastoralia" (Originally published in shorter form in The New Yorker, April 3, 2000)
2. Winky" (The New Yorker, July 28, 1997)
3. Sea Oak" (The New Yorker, December 28, 1998)
4. The End of FIRPO in the World" (The New Yorker, May 18, 1998)
5. The Barber's Unhappiness" (The New Yorker, December 20, 1999)
6. The Falls" (The New Yorker, January 22, 1996)
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LibraryThing member larryerick
George Saunders is definitely my kind of writer. Not that his being a MacArthur "genius grant" recipient means any of that rubs off on me. This is my second reading encounter with the author, the first being CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. The title story in this work was similar to the other work,
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but I would argue that it was not quite as consistent. Nevertheless, Saunders more than makes up for it with some outstandingly creative and insightful prose. Perhaps my favorite was "Sea Oak", the title of which gave me no clue to the vivid imagery contained within. As I was reading the last story in the book, it occurred to me that perhaps, just perhaps, what I like best about his writing is the way he can chain together otherwise easily recognizable situations and characteristics, and string them together in a way that is entirely new and unexpected. In any event, I will explore that theory more by reading more of his work. Show Less
LibraryThing member Dreesie
A couple of these stories--Pastoralia (my favorite) and Sea Oak, are at the edge of being dystopian.
Six short stories. All feature unhappy people, but they are unhappy for different reasons. And all are trying to make the best of their lives, rather than mope in their unhappiness.
From the father
Six short stories. All feature unhappy people, but they are unhappy for different reasons. And all are trying to make the best of their lives, rather than mope in their unhappiness.
From the father
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working as a caveman in a museum exhibit so his son can get the medical care he needs, to the young man working as a stripper of sorts while supporting his aunt, cousins, and his cousins' kids, to the boy who is bullied, to the single middle-aged barber, to the poor man trying to support his family with a job he doesn't really like. They are all doing their best. Show Less
LibraryThing member charlie68
A depressing series of stories about the urban decay of America. Well-written and the narratives ring true, but I think I could've skipped this one of a 1001 books to read before I die.
Awards
Original publication date
2000