Beth's review
Pastoralia
by George Saunders
Beth's review
Pastoralia by George Saunders
Beth's review
rating:
Saunders is an experimental writer who composes pieces along the lines of Donald Bartholme though these stories are quite a bit longer than Bartholme's. Summarizing the plot of any particular story would not convey the odd flavor of Saunders' works. He takes modern life and pushes it just a bit further creating a zoo run by inarticulate paranoid managers in which people enact dioramas of cave dwellers, shepherds, and farmers. The narrator of this particular piece is serious about his work (banging rocks together, pretending to paint the cave wall, and catching bugs)---a nice guy---while his 'mate' is a complainer and manipulative, though also pathetic. My favorite piece (Sea Oak) is narrated by a young man who works in a sex bar (customers are women) trying to support his sister and cousin both of whom are teen moms, high school drop-outs, and foul-mouthed.
