In Persuasion Nation
by George Saunders
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Hubcap by:
The Frogrecommends 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
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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
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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
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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
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
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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
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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
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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
anyhow. this book thoroughly disappointed me. the great stories in it, less than half, were great stories. the rest we...more
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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
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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
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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 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
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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
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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
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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
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Sarah by:
Camillarecommends 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
"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
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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
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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
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
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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
Some are definite gems. And those are the one...more
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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
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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
Read the rest in the June 2007 issue ...more
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Read in January, 2008
"
"I have zero calories of fat," says the orange weakly.
"So do I," says the Slap-of-Wack bar.
"How can that possibly be the case?" says the orange in frustration. "You are comprised of eighty percent high-fructose corn syrup."
"Slap it up your Wack!" shouts the Slap-of-Wack bar, and sails across the counter and digs its edge into the orange over and over, sending the orange off the counter and into the garbage can, where it is leered a...more
"I have zero calories of fat," says the orange weakly.
"So do I," says the Slap-of-Wack bar.
"How can that possibly be the case?" says the orange in frustration. "You are comprised of eighty percent high-fructose corn syrup."
"Slap it up your Wack!" shouts the Slap-of-Wack bar, and sails across the counter and digs its edge into the orange over and over, sending the orange off the counter and into the garbage can, where it is leered a...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.01 (820 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.02 (743 ratings) number of reviews: 130popular shelves
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"He is going, he realizes. He is going, and will not be coming back as Brad. He must try at least to retain this feeling of pity. If he can, whoever he becomes will inherit this feeling, and be driven to act on it, and will not, as Brad now sees he has done, waste his life on accumulation, trivia, self-protection, and vanity."
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