I’ve been seeing George Saunders mentioned a lot recently. I've never read him. I went out and got what they had at the library. I couldn’t finish it. Just not my sense of humor.
If a writer’s compared to Thomas Pynchon I’m pretty much guaranteed not to like it. I couldn’t get through Vineland either. I just don’t think a name like Zoyd Wheeler is funny, and I’m supposed to.
Here’s a line: "Carol was in love with Cal, an Inner Hornerite who resembled a gigantic belt buckle with a blue dot affixed to it, if a gigantic belt buckle with a blue dot affixed to it had been stapled to a tuna fish can."
On the back it says the book’s a mixture of Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut. To some people out there, that’s the perfect combination. Not me.
I’m not done yet. I want to find his stories.
2 comments:
Dude, please find his stories. That "novel" was kind of weak. Actually, hold off on finding his stories. He's got two collections out, and both of them are decent with high points, but I've read three or four of the stories that will be in his new collection (out in a couple months, I think--the stories have appeared in the New Yorker and Harper's) and they seriously blew me away. Especially "CommComm" and "In Persuasion Nation" (which Publishers Weekly saw fit to trash in their review).
So on the other hand, I have no idea if you'll like him. I'm one of those people who thinks Gravity's Rainbow might be the hottest shit ever put to page, so yeah, this Saunders guy is right up my alley.
I just bought "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" and "Pastoralia". He's definitely worth a second chance if you're looking for something a little off-the-radar.
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