In Persuasion Nation: Thoughts

Still recovering from thoughts on Wolf Creek, so I'm posting an old review I wrote about George Saunders' (not really) new collection, In Persuasion Nation. It may be a few days before I can get to Hostel, but I'll get there eventually:

Even though George Saunders’ most recent book of short stories, In Persuasion Nation, is his most uneven collection to date, it is one of the most essential post-September 11^th works around. In the story “Adams”, a man is obsessed with an awkward neighbor who may or may not pose a threat to his family. What results should be required reading for reactionary writers trapped in their own solipsism. It is a story where real answers are found and they aren’t pretty. While not his best collection from cover to cover, (that would be Pastoralia), In Persuasion Nation overflows with big ideas and demonstrates a refinement of craft we expect from experts in the short story. Whereas Saunders’ first two works focused on corporate structures and the ghosts (sometimes literally) in the machine, In Persuasion Nation takes on advertisers and our consumer lifestyle and, for the first time, Saunders holds his characters more accountable for their actions than he has in the past. Character choices are now usually tied to an ad or product. God and Godlessness are more prevalent in this collection, and Saunders is interested in how humanity teeters on the brink. The narrator in the story “Jon”, who, abandoned by his birth mother and raised in a product testing community with no understanding of the world outside, is one of the best “Trendsetter & Tastemaker” artificial memories and consumer fame can buy. A particularly soulless existence if not for the fact that his soul has never been removed, only gone untended. Jon is confronted with his emerging emotions and the way they complicate his simple existence, when he attempts to understand the implications of his girlfriend’s pregnancy, and is one of many characters forced to come to terms with diminishing individuality in a world where humanity has been pre-recorded and test-driven for mass consumption.

Within the collection is the entirety of Saunders’ America; from the hyper-shtick on the title story (one of the worst in the collection), to the down to earth realism of “Christmas” (one of the least inspired and most literary), many of the stories are random riffs of varying quality (“My Amendment” being the most poignant). It can be an uneven gap between extremes, but here are some of Saunders’ best stories to date and it’s worth it to read “Brad Carrigan: American”, “The Red Bow”, “Bohemians”, or “Jon”. Even at his least impressive, Saunders retains the ability to break you apart with the observations of characters immersed humanities diminishing returns. Take for instance this line from “My Flamboyant Grandson”, one of the more routine stories in the collection: “He looks like no one else, acts like no one else, his clothes are increasingly like plumage, late at night he choreographs using plastic Army men, he fits no mold and has no friends, but I believe in my heart that something beautiful may come from him.” Amen, George. Consider me persuaded.