In Persuasion Nation Fan Buzz Kit
by George Saunders
In Persuasion Nation Fan ...
by
George Saunders
|
|
| published
|
by Riverhead Books
|
| binding
| Hardcover |
| isbn
|
1573224650
(isbn13: 9781573224659)
|
| ebook |
|
| date added
|
06-08-07
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of In Persuasion Nation Fan Buzz Kit.
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
other reviews
(showing 1-20 of 1141)
Read in July, 2008
recommended to Hubcap by:
The Frog
recommends it for:
you
Oh, no. I haven't felt this damaged or fucked up/moved by a book since reading Jesus' Son, or maybe Autobiography of Red. You know how many authors settle into a signature style or approach, that maybe has to do with working out certain artistic problems, but maybe it also has to do with publishers/editors putting out the most consistent pieces to create an even or marketable literary product, and maybe I'm being a little bit paranoid, and maybe it's also a little bit true? Not so here. In Persu...more
Oh, no. I haven't felt this damaged or fucked up/moved by a book since reading Jesus' Son, or maybe Autobiography of Red. You know how many authors settle into a signature style or approach, that maybe has to do with working out certain artistic problems, but maybe it also has to do with publishers/editors putting out the most consistent pieces to create an even or marketable literary product, and maybe I'm being a little bit paranoid, and maybe it's also a little bit true? Not so here. In Persuasion Nation varies from story to story, in length, in tone, in structure, in all around approach.
Yes there's this unique-to-Saunders thing happening with lots of satire and the crazed motions of advertising-speak rampaging around in the language. I was so excited by this collection that I googled vigorously while at work and found/read a very good interview w/ GS where he talks about writing satire, and how what he's going for is not a one-to-one (mimetic!) relationship with this our world, but a scrambling of referents until, in his words, "some other thing is being referred to - hopefully some new thing, some new way of looking at a familiar phenomena." This slant-wise look might take the form of a controlled-living environment where people express their feelings via advertisement memory-implants, or it might take the form of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban not only same but "same-ish" sex marriage. Ha. Ha ha ha. Ouch.
But three short pieces in here are realist-ish, that is, not based in a completely askew world, but one that resembles, perhaps, a working class suburb of Chicago circa the author's formative years. History enters in the form of neighbors who lived through the Holocaust, as seen through the eyes of three neighborhood kids, a band of rejects. These little pieces brought to mind the jagged, torn quality of the story/vignettes in Jesus' Son. Language touches down queasily on experience, registering social damage.
So, what is the effect? Is is that these more recognizable narrative forms/conventions deliver a more readily available emotional experience for "the reader", in this case, me? Yes...and then the line between the satire and the realism starts to blur, and you, or I, end up going ha, ouch, ha, ouch, until the final piece, where there are GHOSTS and fundamentalists and pr guys for the military running around all over the page, and that line is sometimes swinging toward satire and sometimes to the realism side of things, at least when it comes to rendering the characters' dialogue and interior lives with precision and complexity, ie, no matter how wacked out/conservative/violent these people's ideologies are EACH OF THEM LOVES SOMEBODY in complicated ways, so that by the end...I won't even tell you what happens, except to say that I had to put my face in my little cat's fur for a couple of minutes because I was crying.
Now, if only I could find a copy of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil. ...less
Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
satire lovers, humorous folks
I got this book because I had read part of it in my short story class, on a day that we studied writing killer first sentences. This was the one, from 'Adams': "I never could stomach Adams and then one day he’s standing in my kitchen, in his underwear." This is pretty indicative of the tone of the whole book. Ridiculously random and funny. Saunders is a master of the sporadic thought process, and whether it's a war between disenfranchised characters from smarmy commercials, a lab...more
I got this book because I had read part of it in my short story class, on a day that we studied writing killer first sentences. This was the one, from 'Adams': "I never could stomach Adams and then one day he’s standing in my kitchen, in his underwear." This is pretty indicative of the tone of the whole book. Ridiculously random and funny. Saunders is a master of the sporadic thought process, and whether it's a war between disenfranchised characters from smarmy commercials, a lab test on rebellious monkeys, or a future museum curator doign roofing work with total lowlifes, he pulls it off convincingly and with plenty of humor.
The prose is fantastically tight, and he has a way of driving the story and characters deep into your brain without you realizing it. I kept thinking about a puppet dog from a sitcom a week after I read the story it was from. The characters he writes give complex explanations of their emotions in short dialogues that would take other writers pages to convey with the mastery he does. The power of these stories is that you find yourself indentifying yourself with the wierd folks in his fiction.
He's also a very adept cultural commentator. Some of his imaginative pieces don't seem that far-fetched. It's conceivable that we really could get more consumeristic and materially needy than we are now, and Saunder's explores this area a great deal. I would hope anyone who likes entertaining satire and sharp writing would give In Persuasion Nation a try....less
Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Vonnegut fans
Yes, he is a true successor to Vonnegut, but maybe more caustic and at times with more heart. George Saunders is an extreme writer, to take a cue from the vocab of his stories, and he pedals back and forth along the spectrum of snark, social criticism and wide-eyed storytelling. The latter of those is what I enjoyed most--stories like "Bohemians," which was about a little neighborhood gang of misfits. The snark was great too; that's when I laughed out loud and read passages to friends,...more
Yes, he is a true successor to Vonnegut, but maybe more caustic and at times with more heart. George Saunders is an extreme writer, to take a cue from the vocab of his stories, and he pedals back and forth along the spectrum of snark, social criticism and wide-eyed storytelling. The latter of those is what I enjoyed most--stories like "Bohemians," which was about a little neighborhood gang of misfits. The snark was great too; that's when I laughed out loud and read passages to friends, like "My Amendment," a letter written by a conservative fanatic about same-sex and "same-ish sex" marriage. The last category was more difficult. Some stories were skewering and enlightening, like "Jon," whose main character is an orphan forced to be a "tastemaker" for sci-fi(ish) marketing campaigns, and that's when Saunders was most effective. There were a few that were painful but in a cleansing way, like the story about the effects of scientific testing on monkeys. And then there were some that fell into the social satire catch-all but were so vehemently bizarre and bordering on nonsensical that I was just lost, like in the story "Brad Carrigan, American," who is a guy caught in a sitcom, completely mistreated by his TV family and then thrust out into the ether. At that point, it was more like, OK I get it, but where's the story? But I still had to admire the passion burning in Saunders to open our eyes and I definitely ended the book with that much more sight. ...less
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Summer readers, smartasses, lefties (politically)
I like Saunders, although he does lay it on a bit thick at times. Subtlety is hard to put one's finger on...Anyway, He's got the right take on things, in the sense that he's opinionated in the same way about the same things I am, and expresses those opinions in a very smartass manner. Always willing to be preached to in the choir, here.
There's a dark streak to some of the stories, and the bits of black humor kind of fell flat with me. It was almost as if he's a nice guy who's got a great con...more
I like Saunders, although he does lay it on a bit thick at times. Subtlety is hard to put one's finger on...Anyway, He's got the right take on things, in the sense that he's opinionated in the same way about the same things I am, and expresses those opinions in a very smartass manner. Always willing to be preached to in the choir, here.
There's a dark streak to some of the stories, and the bits of black humor kind of fell flat with me. It was almost as if he's a nice guy who's got a great concept, but is literally TOO nice to get the idea across without sounding forced. I want to read something TRULY mean now, like Bukowski. This is similar to saying that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the girl you just dumped, she was nice and sweet...but now you're f**king some skank who treats you like crap, just because you're REALLY into the sex. Not to say that Bukowski is that one-dimensional, by any stretch, but I hope you get my incredibly crass point.
When he's concentrating on being light and funny with a bigger moral message, though, he can really knock it out of the park. This is a great book for warm weather, maybe for the beach or something like that - not so light that you can drift off in the middle or anything, but it would be frustrating if you're looking for more of a mental meal and you pick up this snack-pack....less
Read in April, 2007
George Saunders seems to have made a pretty solid career for himself by skewering the massively weird and distant ways we consume goods (and by goods here I mean history and information as well as pre-packed food dreck). After reading his last few books I admit I was a little worried for George--it seemed like he had found a good basic situation in CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and Pastoralia, mostly the struggle to remain authentically human in a themepark simulation of the real world. These are ...more
George Saunders seems to have made a pretty solid career for himself by skewering the massively weird and distant ways we consume goods (and by goods here I mean history and information as well as pre-packed food dreck). After reading his last few books I admit I was a little worried for George--it seemed like he had found a good basic situation in CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and Pastoralia, mostly the struggle to remain authentically human in a themepark simulation of the real world. These are great stories and I'm glad somebody wrote them, but with his obvious talent for incisive cultural observation, it seemed a little disappointing to watch him reiterate a particular plotline.
So, In Persuasion Nation is a new iteration of similar ideas, which is great. Saunders is a realist in the hyper- sense: as much as these stories may read as farce/science fiction, they're uncomfortably true to the climate of now. (Sometimes the hyper-real voices, likes and ums and weird grammar all together, begin to grate across a few stories. It's a small complaint but worth noting.) And anyway, I can only read so many stories about quiet, mid-life, midwestern desperation.
By the way, if you're interested in hyper-real fiction, you may want to check the Believer for an article a few months back on Doctorow's oscillating ideas about what level of representation constitutes "the real" in fiction....less
Read in May, 2008
I'm a sizable Saunders' fan, so I approached this book with some sense of anticipation. For the most part, my appetite for good short fiction was met. I thought there were a few more "misses" among the collection than I remember from either CivilWarLand... or Pastoralia. These include "I CAN SPEAK!" (reminded me of the 90's era SNL skit "Super Happy Fun Ball" which is unspeakably awesome, but this story took the concept a little too far), "My Amen...more
I'm a sizable Saunders' fan, so I approached this book with some sense of anticipation. For the most part, my appetite for good short fiction was met. I thought there were a few more "misses" among the collection than I remember from either CivilWarLand... or Pastoralia. These include "I CAN SPEAK!" (reminded me of the 90's era SNL skit "Super Happy Fun Ball" which is unspeakably awesome, but this story took the concept a little too far), "My Amendment" (a loud unfunny satire), and "93990" (which I freely admit I missed the boat on - I just sat there for 10 min after reading it and went - huh?).
"Jon" I really liked, even though it went on a little too long, and I would put "The Red Bow" and "In Persuasion Nation" in the instant-classic category. Those are stories I can see myself revisiting again and again. It's such a fine line between being too obvious with the satire ("My Amendment"), finding the perfect niche for it ("I.P.N.") and being so totally crazy about what you're writing that it obscures the "point" of the story ("93990"). But when Saunders finds that happy zone, he's simply great. And at this point, if you combine all his work and pluck the best stories, you have a greatest hits package to rival any contemporary short story writer. I suppose it's only a matter of time before we get a collected works, and that will be a book that everyone should buy. ...less
Read in January, 2008
hypothetically, george saunders is an author i should like. he is unabashedly progressive, very experimental, and witty. also, i loved pretty much everything in "pastoralia." two years ago when i was in graduate school, i held him in the highest esteem, seeing him as something of a descendant of one of my favorites, donald barthelme (yes i am a snobby snob snob snob).
anyhow. this book thoroughly disappointed me. the great stories in it, less than half, were great stories. the rest we...more
hypothetically, george saunders is an author i should like. he is unabashedly progressive, very experimental, and witty. also, i loved pretty much everything in "pastoralia." two years ago when i was in graduate school, i held him in the highest esteem, seeing him as something of a descendant of one of my favorites, donald barthelme (yes i am a snobby snob snob snob).
anyhow. this book thoroughly disappointed me. the great stories in it, less than half, were great stories. the rest were all failed experiments, hitting you over the head with their premise and politics. i wouldn't even call some of them stories, they were more like experiments that just play out without any change really happening.
good stories include "the red bow," "christmas," and "adams." and this handful, part ii of the collection are great great stories, with characters you can really feel and the humor never overwhelming the plot. also, "bohemians," which is at the end of the book. decent stories are "commcomm" and "my flamboyant grandson," which was really cute despite its overly done spam pop-up window walking down the street concept.
everything else i struggled to get through or didn't get through at all. believe me i tried. but it just pissed me off. i hate being disappointed by a writer i really like....less
bookshelves:
fiction-read
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Compulsive shoppers?
Overall, I liked most of the stories in here. It seems in some of them, Saunders does the old short story writers trick of laying out one set of assumptions about the characters involved and then pulling the rug out from under those assumptions ('The Bohemians', 'CommComm'). Of all the stories, 'Christmas' felt the most out of place, but to think that that story and 'In persuasion nation' could both come out of the same brain is, I have to admit, pretty admirable. There's too many 'one trick pon...more
Overall, I liked most of the stories in here. It seems in some of them, Saunders does the old short story writers trick of laying out one set of assumptions about the characters involved and then pulling the rug out from under those assumptions ('The Bohemians', 'CommComm'). Of all the stories, 'Christmas' felt the most out of place, but to think that that story and 'In persuasion nation' could both come out of the same brain is, I have to admit, pretty admirable. There's too many 'one trick pony' writers out there (Tom Robbins?). 'Jon' and 'Brad Carrigan, American' seemed cut from pretty much the same cloth and I think convey their message pretty well.
I also admire writers who aren't afraid to play with language. The speech and narration patterns Saunders uses in many of the stories convey a feeling of the far - or near - future, or in some cases, the simplemindness of the character speaking. Why not?!? No one uses the same vocabulary or phraseology as people did 100 or even 30 years ago, so why would people in the future talk exactly as we do today, with a few made up 'high-tech' or 'yet to be invented product' words thrown in to supposedly 'proove' that the story is set in a future world. Though admittedly his made up product names had me chuckling....less
bookshelves:
short-anthologies
Read in September, 2007
I "liked" about 1/2 of the stories in this latest Saunders, and the other half felt unfinished or boring or pointless or just brutal, even for Saunders. One of the first things I did was tear the dust cover a bit on accident and then said what the hell and threw it away. The book does look better without that stupid photo anyway. I read it while on vacation in a state park in W. Virginia, which somehow seemed fitting. I will also never go on vacation again with only one book. What was ...more
I "liked" about 1/2 of the stories in this latest Saunders, and the other half felt unfinished or boring or pointless or just brutal, even for Saunders. One of the first things I did was tear the dust cover a bit on accident and then said what the hell and threw it away. The book does look better without that stupid photo anyway. I read it while on vacation in a state park in W. Virginia, which somehow seemed fitting. I will also never go on vacation again with only one book. What was I thinking? Thankfully my brother had a copy of Calvino's Barron in the Trees. I liked the story about the grandfather and the kid going to NYC to see Babar and getting accosted by aural and visual advertisements and a citizen helper with a clipboard. And I do appreciate that feeling I get when starting one of his stories like "what the hell is he talking about" that eventually resolves with Saunders telling you exactly what is happening. The montage of commercials was pretty amusing, but didn't stand up to the brilliance I've known from Saunders. I'm not unhappy to have read it, just not what I am used to from Saunders. This is not the Saunders I remembered from way back in '97. And is definitely not on par with Civilwarland or Pastoralia....less
Read in May, 2008
I cannot say enough about this book. It's a collection of short stories that was published a couple of years ago. I haven't read short stories in a really long time and reading this book was completely refreshing.
I don't know much about this author except that he contributes to the New Yorker, Harper's and GQ. I am now going to seek much of his work.
There is an impressive range in his material. Most of the time he is writing with this wry or absurd sense of humor. But then you'll ...more
I cannot say enough about this book. It's a collection of short stories that was published a couple of years ago. I haven't read short stories in a really long time and reading this book was completely refreshing.
I don't know much about this author except that he contributes to the New Yorker, Harper's and GQ. I am now going to seek much of his work.
There is an impressive range in his material. Most of the time he is writing with this wry or absurd sense of humor. But then you'll move onto the next story and it will break your heart and surprise you with its beauty and sadness.
The stories can be pretty challenging to grasp at time because he tries to convey a lot with very few words, so minor details and comments end up being big clues and insights into the characters' backstory. When you start every story you kind of feel like you've dropped into the middle of things and you have no idea what's going on but as you progress you begin to piece it all together. Because of that, I'm excited to go back and reread some of these now that I've seen big picture of the story.
I am absolutely willing to lend this out so let me know if you're interested. ...less
Read in October, 2007
Extremely funny and profound short stories that reflect modern American consumer-driven society through a futuristic funhouse mirror. Cynical and unforgiving satire centered on the ubiquitousness and nefariousness of modern advertising, the weirdness of modern consumer products, and the bizarre state of current American culture and society. The characters in Saunders' short stories are self-absorbed, dumb, paranoid, wealth-obsessed, and seem extremely familiar--kind of like the people you run ...more
Extremely funny and profound short stories that reflect modern American consumer-driven society through a futuristic funhouse mirror. Cynical and unforgiving satire centered on the ubiquitousness and nefariousness of modern advertising, the weirdness of modern consumer products, and the bizarre state of current American culture and society. The characters in Saunders' short stories are self-absorbed, dumb, paranoid, wealth-obsessed, and seem extremely familiar--kind of like the people you run into at Macy's, Starbucks, or Arby's. By the way, the next time you go to Arby's, try the Extra Long Bacon Chedder Cheez Steak...no wait, that's Sonic...change of plan...demand the addition of an Extra Long Bacon Chedder Cheez Steak to your local Arby's menu...if they refuse, order 2 Beef N' Chedders, then torch the place.
"Then things started getting dumber. Plus meaner. Now it's basically all mean talk and jokes about poop and butts" (Saunders, 2006).
"The Ding-Dong puts his arm around the young man, and the young man smiles up at the Ding-Dong, and the Ding-Dong bends down and gives the young man a kiss on the head" (Saunders, 2006)....less
Read in February, 2008
I read half this book, decided it was funny and absurd, but not really my cup of meat. So I put it down and read Mark Leyner's The Tehterballs of Bougainville, which produced a kind of violent reaction on a glandular level. After that I returned to In Persuasion Nation and suddenly it seemed so much more approachable. The last three stories are the strongest, and I think Saunders is at his best when he is his most autobiographical---in this case with Bohemians. Sure, that's probably not what...more
I read half this book, decided it was funny and absurd, but not really my cup of meat. So I put it down and read Mark Leyner's The Tehterballs of Bougainville, which produced a kind of violent reaction on a glandular level. After that I returned to In Persuasion Nation and suddenly it seemed so much more approachable. The last three stories are the strongest, and I think Saunders is at his best when he is his most autobiographical---in this case with Bohemians. Sure, that's probably not what you read a GS book for, but I don't care. Anyway, the point is the book really comes on strong at the end, and I ended up really enjoying it. On the back cover it says GS was awarded a McArthur genius grant for "bringing to contemporary American fiction a sense of humor, pathos, and literary style all his own." I looked up pathos---I mean, I more or less knew the word, but probably couldn't have written down a sufficient definition, so I wanted to double check. My beat up old Webster's says: "the quality or power of evoking pity or compassion." Yep, that's what Saunders has in spades.
...less
bookshelves:
fiction
Read in November, 2007
I loved Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, so I was extra-disappointed with this one because I was expecting to be delighted. It's entertaining enough, but a lot of the stories just seem like conceit with not a whole lot of story going on. There are some exceptions; "Christmas" and "Bohemians" are quite good, but they're at odds with the book as a whole-- they're more character-driven and don't rely on bizarro-future-world-controlled-by-advertisers/market-research sc...more
I loved Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, so I was extra-disappointed with this one because I was expecting to be delighted. It's entertaining enough, but a lot of the stories just seem like conceit with not a whole lot of story going on. There are some exceptions; "Christmas" and "Bohemians" are quite good, but they're at odds with the book as a whole-- they're more character-driven and don't rely on bizarro-future-world-controlled-by-advertisers/market-research scenerios. Some of these scenarios were compelling, but they really belabored the "this is what will happen to us if we keep going the way we're going" message. Also, in many of the stories, Saunders uses a speech pattern modeled after teenagers who watch too much t.v. or something. I understand why he's doing it, and he does it pretty well, but it's a real drag to read. Anyway, if your hopes aren't up as much as mine were, you might find these stories amusing at least....less
Read in January, 2008
recommended to Sarah by:
Camilla
recommends it for:
those who think out loud
There are so many great things about this book, but one of the best is that I've read nothing like it before. Take, for example, the following gem of a paragraph, from the story jon :
"And I don't know, it is one thing to look out a window, but when you are Out, actually Out, that is something very powerful, and how embarrassing was that, because I could not help it, I went down flat on my gut checking out those flowers, and the feeling of the one I chose was like the silk on tha...more
There are so many great things about this book, but one of the best is that I've read nothing like it before. Take, for example, the following gem of a paragraph, from the story jon :
"And I don't know, it is one thing to look out a window, but when you are Out, actually Out, that is something very powerful, and how embarrassing was that, because I could not help it, I went down flat on my gut checking out those flowers, and the feeling of the one I chose was like the silk on that Hermes jacket I could never seem to get Reserved because Vance was always hogging it, except the flower was even better, it being very smooth and built in like layers? With the outside layer being yellow, and inside that a white thing like a bell, and inside the white bell-like thing were fifteen (I counted) smaller bell-like red things, and inside each red thing was an even smaller orange two-dingly-thing combo." (sic, sic, sic, sic...)...less
Read in July, 2008
These stories are highly stylized, and while that can be just fine and interesting, in most of these cases it is distracting. There are few stories in this collection that employ any degree of subtlety, but two of the least gimmicky stories (the one about the monkey and the one about roofing/Christmas) are the most affecting. Too much of the time Saunders is going full attack on pop culture/advertisement/consumerism in a broad, juvenile manner. I worry that McSweeney's and Tao Lin and the oth...more
These stories are highly stylized, and while that can be just fine and interesting, in most of these cases it is distracting. There are few stories in this collection that employ any degree of subtlety, but two of the least gimmicky stories (the one about the monkey and the one about roofing/Christmas) are the most affecting. Too much of the time Saunders is going full attack on pop culture/advertisement/consumerism in a broad, juvenile manner. I worry that McSweeney's and Tao Lin and the other makers of taste in new fiction are pushing the style too hard and foregoing basic, good writing. Or, maybe I'm like that old guy that doesn't get what the fuck is going on with this new generation with their talking Doritos Bags and their fictional Elijah Woodses.
I did enjoy Saunders' sense of humor and would highly recommend Jack Pendarvis' "Mysterious Secret of Valuable Treasure" to others with similar sensibilities. ...less
Read in March, 2008
I made this my book club's selection because I had read and love Pastoralia in my contemporary short story class last year. Comparatively, this collection is not as strong, but I still enjoyed it. Saunders has a way with satire, and his dark humor helps to balance some of the disturbing aspects of the stories.
The best stories in the bunch are "Jon," "The Red Bow," "In Persuasion Nation," and "CommComm". TRB was my most favorite of all; Saunde...more
I made this my book club's selection because I had read and love Pastoralia in my contemporary short story class last year. Comparatively, this collection is not as strong, but I still enjoyed it. Saunders has a way with satire, and his dark humor helps to balance some of the disturbing aspects of the stories.
The best stories in the bunch are "Jon," "The Red Bow," "In Persuasion Nation," and "CommComm". TRB was my most favorite of all; Saunders works the tightrope between maudlin grief and unfeeling satire.
Some of the other stories, while they had good elements, either went on too long or felt like set pieces. The letter-as-short-story is one of my least favorite forms. Both of those were funny but felt as though they lacked depth. With the others, I felt as though they could have ended earlier and had more resonance....less
Read in October, 2007
I'm not big on short stories. I never get invested and if I do, the story's over before it began. It's like watching a whole bunch of teasers. However a collection of short stories can be seen as an album with each story playing off each other, and building a whole, complete reading experience. That said, you really shouldn't make an album unless you've got an album's worth of songs. And this book, I think, might have worked better as an EP.
Some are definite gems. And those are the one...more
I'm not big on short stories. I never get invested and if I do, the story's over before it began. It's like watching a whole bunch of teasers. However a collection of short stories can be seen as an album with each story playing off each other, and building a whole, complete reading experience. That said, you really shouldn't make an album unless you've got an album's worth of songs. And this book, I think, might have worked better as an EP.
Some are definite gems. And those are the ones that should've made the cut. Others could've been released maybe on a bonus disc sometime in the future, during the reissue, if the thing's a hit.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, some of them were good, and some of them weren't. I'm not big on short stories though. So, there you go....less
bookshelves:
mainstreamlitfic,
shortstorycollections
Read in July, 2007
Riotously funny, savagely satirical, Saunders dazzle with his astonishing imagination and deadpan deadbeats in a world gone awry when advertising takes over and turns America upside down. You can't walk down Time Square without being besieged with a thousand subliminal ad messages in Saunders' world, but if you choose to forfeit, you get fined and have to do that walk again. In one memorable story, "Jon", imagine a world where everything you think or speak is the jibber jabber fed t...more
Riotously funny, savagely satirical, Saunders dazzle with his astonishing imagination and deadpan deadbeats in a world gone awry when advertising takes over and turns America upside down. You can't walk down Time Square without being besieged with a thousand subliminal ad messages in Saunders' world, but if you choose to forfeit, you get fined and have to do that walk again. In one memorable story, "Jon", imagine a world where everything you think or speak is the jibber jabber fed to your brain from millions of commercials -- two young people in love face the possibility of leaving that world and facing, what? themselves as moronic blank spaces without the ability to communicate. These are well-turned stories that keeps one thinking long after the imprint is gone....less
Read in July, 2008
Not as consistent as Pastoralia, but there's plenty to like here. The letter to the editor about the abomination of "Samish-Sex Marriages" between femmy fellas and mannish women is almost perfect, but it's the last story that really nails it for me. Like much of Saunders' work, it throws you so directly into the middle of some baffling, dystopian near-future that you have to proceed for pages with the faith that he's going to make sense of it. Then, once you acclimate to the ...more
Not as consistent as Pastoralia, but there's plenty to like here. The letter to the editor about the abomination of "Samish-Sex Marriages" between femmy fellas and mannish women is almost perfect, but it's the last story that really nails it for me. Like much of Saunders' work, it throws you so directly into the middle of some baffling, dystopian near-future that you have to proceed for pages with the faith that he's going to make sense of it. Then, once you acclimate to the absurdity of this world and settle into the smallness and meanness of its highly imperfect people, he opens up the possibility for compassionate humanity and transcendence among people you've almost written off as lost causes. ...less
Until recently, Saunders’s fiction has hit the mark every time it’s attempted to do so. The short story collections CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (Riverhead, 1996) and Pastoralia (2000) were great surrealist fiction entries, as was the novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil (Riverhead, 2005), but In Persuasion Nation (Riverhead, 2006) is a mixed bag. A few stories work. Most, however, do not....
Read the rest in the June 2007 issue ...more
Until recently, Saunders’s fiction has hit the mark every time it’s attempted to do so. The short story collections CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (Riverhead, 1996) and Pastoralia (2000) were great surrealist fiction entries, as was the novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil (Riverhead, 2005), but In Persuasion Nation (Riverhead, 2006) is a mixed bag. A few stories work. Most, however, do not....
Read the rest in the June 2007 issue of decomP. ...less
book data (includes all editions)
avg rating
(all editions):
4.01 (860 ratings)
avg rating
(this edition): 0.00
(0 ratings)
number of reviews: 141
other editions
[close]
In Persuasion Nation (Paperback)
isbn: 159448242X
[close]
In Persuasion Nation (Hardcover)
isbn: 159448922X
