I don’t know anything about this book except that it has a ridiculously sweet cover. Also: it has the word apocalypse in the title. Way cool. (via Covers)
The New York Public Library Young Lions Award was announced. Former Emory student Olga Grushin won for her novel The Dream Life of Sukhanov (our review is here). The award presentation featured fellow nominees Chris Adrian (The Children’s Hospital) and Tony D’Souza (Whiteman). Readings from the nominated books were performed by Ethan Hawke and that one dude from House (via Galley Cat, which has a picture that includes all of the above)
George Saunders, an author that I have never read but is spoken about with awe and fawning praise thing - pretty much everywhere else, has a short story in The New Yorker. The opening sentence goes against everything that I sort of know about writing. Maybe that’s why he’s in The New Yorker and I’m here.
May 29th, 2007 at 8:55 am
That is quite a lengthy first sentence in Saunder’s short story.
Wish I had the creativity and guts to flaunt the “acceptable” - and end up in The New Yorker.
May 29th, 2007 at 9:07 am
At what point do people quit telling you - “No, no. That’s too long. Break it up.” I’ve heard that the worst thing that can happen to some writers is getting an MFA, because a lot of their unique tics will be forcibly removed over time.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:29 am
It’s the advantage of having a reputation. Had you or I written that story (which I got a few more paragraphs into before giving up in despair) and sent it to The New Yorker, it would have been returned in four-to-six weeks with their standard rejection slip. Mr Saunders, however, is known unto them, and has won some awards, and probably has an agent to do his submitting for him, which means his story gets read by some top-level lunkhead. The top level lunkhead then reads that first sentence with its truncated repetitions of the phrase “the brilliance of the autumnal sun on the perfect field of corn” and decided that it was witty rather than precious and meaningful and deep rather than shallow and obvious. The top level lunkhead does this because he or she or it knows George Saunders as a good writer. All the people he she or it knows understand this. They are the People Who Know Good Literature, and they have the slaps on the back from each other to prove the rightness of their understanding. Since they feel the need to separate themselves from ordinary people, people who might read in order to be entertained or enriched, they gravitate toward work that is snotty to the point of being supercilious, overly intellectualized, and gimmicky.
Also, this guy was awarded a MacArthur grant, which means that he must be a genius because that board could never possibly be wrong.
Not that I’ve got any axes to grind.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:42 am
George Saunders is one of my 2 or 3 favorite living writers, and I have devoured everything he’s ever written. That said, he has a distinct “voice” to which you definitely need to tune your ear. He frequently writes in the voice of a first-person protagonist or narrator (often someone not particularly bright or self-aware), which means that the sentences are structured like speech or internal thoughts. So yes, they can ramble on and be quite non-linear at times. But stick with it — if any American writer deserves one of those “genius grants,” it’s my man George.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Frank: I’ve been meaning to check the man out for some time, because he gets raves everywhere. That said, this story may not be the best place to start. As a fan, what would you recommend as a jumping off point for his work?
May 29th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I recommend you start with the first collection of stories, CivilWarLand In Bad Decline, which pretty much sets the template — you either dig it or you don’t. The other two collections are Pastoralia and In Persuasion Nation, and both are brilliant.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:46 am
…AND the guy’s name is Bottoms… sweet indeed!