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Title: CivilWarLand in Bad Decline |
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Review of CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
- In six stories and the novella, Bounty, Saunders introduces readers to people struggling to survive in an increasingly haywire world. "(Saunders) has created a surreal, weirdly persuasive picture of the devolved future now taking shape in our own worst and most potent tendencies."--Tobias Wolff.
Book Description
- George Saunders, a geophysicist, maps out magical realism with this short story collection. He puts an American spin on that sensibility in the sensationally good title tale, where things in a "Westworld"-like amusement park go extraordinarily wrong, but in ways in that make perfect sense to any denizen--or reader--in the modern world. CivilWarLand is hilarious, yet ultimately sad and moving--and isn't that life in a nutshell? And how can you resist any writer who cooks up titles as good as "Downtrodden Mary's Failed Campaign of Terror"?
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Comments for CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
- Posted on 2008-05-20
A GREAT COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES
Ignore the haters. This is a fine book of short stories by a very
talented author. Some stories are laugh out loud funny, some will
touch your heart, all of them are worth your time. Don't miss out
on reading them. As I write this, I realize that this probably is
my favorite collection of short stories that I've read as of late.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-04-24
passive, disempowered, usually impotent
I first read George Saunders in a 2005 issue of Harper's Magazine, and found that story, "Brad Carrigan, American" to be a refreshing, albeit somewhat cavalier absurdist satire of modern American life, underscored by a real moral imperative. Saunders is clearly much attuned to and deeply concerned by the ways in which our superficial consumer culture shadows its own inherent violence and spiritual impoverishment. Or something like that. These same concerns are also reflected in his earliest stories.
Published in 1996, Civilwarland is Saunders' first collection, featuring six stories and a novella. The stories are, for the most part, a disappointing series rehashing a similar theme. Each of the pieces in this collection is written in the first person and narrated in the same basic voice: male, passive, disempowered, usually impotent. In one story the narrator is apparently female, but the sense is the same. With one exception, all of the pieces involve a themed amusement park of some sort where the narrator is an employee, and in every instance the narrative is punctuated by several arbitrary acts of brutal violence. I found the repetitive hyperbolic satire of these stories to be obnoxious and over-blown, angry and frustrated without offering any real insight.
Through the working out of his one-trick thematic structure, Saunders seems to trying to get at something, and he finally achieves a measure of real craft in the collection's novella, "Bounty," which comprises half the book. This dystopian, tragicomic work of speculative fiction, set in a near future suffering the consequences of our moral and environmental destructiveness, echoes Margaret Atwood's masterful book Oryx and Crake. The novella, unlike the other pieces in Civilwarland, is actually engaging, a fairly well-developed and redeeming tale where Saunders' hilariously mangled corporate-correctness-speak shines. Still, with half the book a loss, it's difficult to recommend.
Score: 2
- Posted on 2008-04-12
Stories with a twisted, dark, and tragicomic american vision
I can't help but feel like a jackass for coming to the game so late. It has been over ten years since Civilwarland in Bad Decline was first published and introduced George Saunders to the literary world. As a guy who is constantly pounding the table about the value of short stories, I look a bit o' the fool for having not read and known the value of Saunders' debut collection. What a way to kick in the doors and make an entrance into the literary world.
Saunders is amazingly comfortable in his own skin -- he's running with a great stride in these stories, carrying the reader along with him effortlessly. Nothing ever seems forced. Both Flannery O'Connor and Mavis Gallant had that same ability, and in many ways Saunders is as adept at writing stories that seemed to have been set down on earth and exist (you never feel as if you're reading, you are a witness).
It is an American vision, albeit a twisted, dark, and tragicomic one. The world of Saunders' stories is our America, but turned inside out, revealing our ugly insides. And that alone makes them a pleasure to read.
On the surface most of the tales in Civilwarland in Bad Decline focus around theme parks or attractions that at first seem absurd, but as you read into the story, don't seem that implausible. The Civilwarland theme park of the title story is savaged by teenage gangs, has authentic civil-war era tormented souls, and a reconstructed Eerie Canal complete with a historically inaccurate smell of Chinese food. There is the water park sporting a "Leaping Trout Subroutine" for authenticity and a very deadly wave pool. Oh and the not-so-perfect holographic projection franchise and the not-so-on-the-level raccoon disposal business and a science museum that includes pickled babies and cows with plexiglass stomachs. I almost forgot to mention the medieval times theme park staffed by mutants. But nothing works, or at least not the way it should. The bird count in Civilwarland is off so they have to kill several hundred orioles. The plexiglass cows keep dying. The wave pool sucks small children into the turbines. The holograph devices can actually siphon a customer's memories. It is a strange America that Saunders presents to us, but not so far-fetched. It is just our foibles and desires and sins amplified to comic effect. This is usually why most people cannot go three lines without mentioning Vonnegut when talking about Saunders' stories.
But the superstructures that hold up all these stories are simple morality tales. Most, with the exception of "Downtrodden Mary's Failed Campaign of Terror," center around emasculated or down-trodden men having to face up to the consequences of their actions. It gives the stories their sadness and their hook. One moment you're laughing at Saunders wit only to be sucker punched by the reality of a character's situation. The narrator of the title story, discovering that his de facto security guard has taken his role a little too seriously upon capturing a teenage candy thief, is forced to bury a severed hand behind the theme park. As he digs, he's confronted by the ghosts of the park -- a civil-war era family who really haven't gotten over the whole death thing -- launching the otherworldly collective into a Macbeth like hand wringing scene. It breaks your heart.
And that is what makes these stories works so perfectly. They break you down, even as they have you laughing out loud. The best story in the collection, "Isabelle," is almost an odd-duck as it is a straight tale of small town life. But it destroys you. It lays you out flat on a slab. The prose is simple, precise, razor-sharp. In all good short story collections, there is always one piece that justifies the cost of the others. "Isabelle" is worth the price of the book alone.
The collection is not perfect. The final novella, "Bounty," while entertaining in parts feels like an unneeded, over-extended exclamation point to the stories in front of it. If I had to guess, the publisher included it so as not to make the collection seem too short. And in some ways, the recurring themes can start to feel heavy-handed as you get four or five stories into the book. But Saunders always saves the day. His writing is so perfectly witty, sharp, and poignant, that you're willing to drop the petty criticisms and follow the tale. That is a sign of great writing.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-01-15
Thank You, Mr. Saunders
Saunders kindly presents us with another collection of stories written with such incredible skill as to seem effortless. He further explores passivity and consumerism, and features more failing theme parks marketing specific American historical periods to gullible tourists. The novella, "Bounty", about a mutant's journey cross-country to save his sister, is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
These stories are not as overtly humorous as most of his others, but still just as enveloping and sharp. If you're not a bad person, you should be reading George Saunders' output. And loving it.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2007-02-04
hallelujah!
the kind of book that makes reading a PLEASURE. mr saunders has an incredible immagination and writes clean direct prose, and (best of all) is not afraid (or is capable of) writing ENJOYABLE stories. so many authors (especially short stories writers) simply crap out pretentious writer workship type material without any story to tell at all. Such writing is simply empty ego (hidden under the delusion that the writer is being "important"). this wonderful author actually has stories to tell, on top of fantastic prose skills. one of the best short story collections i have ever read. thank you, mr. saunders.
Score: 5