Maria's review
The Braindead Megaphone
by George Saunders
Maria's review
The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders
Maria's review
rating:
bookshelves:
filling-the-walls-of-my-house
George Saunders = American Genius. Funny, twisted, huge heart. I love the article about Dubai in this book, and also the one about the US/Mexican border. Saunders goes at journalistic topics with a unique voice: half-idiot (the kind of idiot most of us bear inside ourselves and never admit to) and half-pure insight. The border article is full of laughs as Saunders hangs out with a militia-ish patriot group patrolling a small section of border in the middle of the night, with very mediocre results. He has an ability to pluck out the threads of commonality in the human experience, while also pulling out the threads of what makes these people so afraid of an insecure border (and/or so galvanized by the power they are wielding by sitting there fully armed). Also loved the article about the Tibetan boy who has been meditating for almost a year without food - in this, Saunders gets into the mysterious unknown, sense of humor and sarcasm intact, and finds himself changed by the end of th...more
