The fact that the story ends on a comparatively hopeful note almost makes it harder to take Saunders makes it clear that deliverance, if it comes, can never heal the pain of what has already happened.

The prose is relentless, and the horror becomes worse and worse as it becomes clear that Saunders won't let us look away. Saunders' new, more grounded tone is evident in 'Victory Lap,' a grim and brutal story about the assault and attempted kidnapping of a young girl. Tenth of December isn't just the author's most unexpected work yet it's also his best. But in his new book, his defiant quirkiness is tempered with a dark sobriety and a sense that the world we live in is often more surreal and savage than any satire could be. That's not to say he has abandoned the bizarre, dystopian type of fiction that made him one of the country's most well-regarded authors that's all still there. Even his story titles ('Downtrodden Mary's Failed Campaign of Terror,' 'My Flamboyant Grandson') are offbeat.īut with his new short story collection, Tenth of December, Saunders proves he's a master of a genre few people have associated with him: realism. Saunders blends elements of science fiction, horror and humor writing into his trademark brand of literary fiction. The short story writer and novelist has been repeatedly called 'original,' which is true as far as it goes - but it doesn't go nearly far enough. Since the publication of George Saunders' 1996 debut story collection, Civilwarland in Bad Decline, journalists and scholars have been trying to figure out how to describe his writing. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Urn:oclc:875351254 Republisher_date 20160715114435 Republisher_operator Republisher_time 803 Scandate 20160705050446 Scanner overlay Buy Featured Book Title Tenth of December Author George Saunders OL17695397W Page-progression lr Page_number_confidence 91.44 Pages 294 Ppi 300 Related-external-id urn:isbn:1410460398 Tenth of December Author George Saunders Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017 ISBN 1408894815, 9781408894811 Length 288 pages Export Citation BiBTeX EndNote RefMan About Google Books. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 18:42:48.86178 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA1147914 Donorīostonpubliclibrary Edition Random House trade paperback edition.

Tenth of december by george saunders