In Persuasion Nation: Summary and book reviews of In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders, plus links to an excerpt from In Persuasion Nation and a biography of George Saunders.
In Persuasion Nation
by George Saunders
Hardcover: Apr 2006,
240 pages.
Paperback: Mar 2007,
240 pages.
George Saunders has earned enthusiastic acclaim and a devoted cult-following with his first two story collections and the recent novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil. With his new book, In Persuasion Nation, Saunders ups the ante in every way, and is poised to break out to a wide new audience.
The stories In Persuasion Nation are easily his best work yet. "The Red Bow,"about a town consumed by pet-killing hysteria, won a 2004 National Magazine Award and "Bohemians," the story of two supposed Eastern European widows trying to fit in in suburban USA, is included in The Best American Short Stories 2005. His new book includes both unpublished work, and stories that first appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and Esquire. The stories in this volume work together as a whole whose impact far exceeds the simple sum of its parts. Fans of Saunders know and love him for his sharp and hilarious satirical eye. But In Persuasion Nation also includes more personal and poignant pieces that reveal a new kind of emotional conviction in Saunders's writing.
Saunders's work in the last six years has come to be recognized as one of the strongest-and most consoling-cries in the wilderness of the millennium's political and cultural malaise. In Persuasion Nation's sophistication and populism should establish Saunders once and for all as this generation's literary voice of wisdom and humor in a time when we need it most.
These are outrageous, compelling and very funny stories but, as always, you don't have to take BookBrowse's word for it, instead you can read a complete short story for yourself at BookBrowse, and in the sidebar you'll find a link to audio downloads of two more stories from the collection. (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Publisher's Weekly
Saunders's vital theme...comes through with subtlety and fresh turns.
Booklist - Donna Seaman
Funny, creepy, mournful, and outraged, Saunder's ingenious and superbly crafted satirical stories blaze like warning lights on the road to hell.
Kirkus Reviews
Saunders's work is as effective as social commentary as it is at exploring the frontiers of fiction.
George Saunders was born in 1958 and raised on the south side of Chicago. In
1981 he received a B.S. in Geophysical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines
in Golden, Colorado. According to his bio he has been an environment engineer, a
technical writer and geophysical engineer, he has also worked in Sumatra, as a
doorman in Beverly Hills, a roofer in Chicago, a convenience store clerk, a
guitarist in a Texas country-and-western band, and a knuckle-puller in a West
Texas slaughterhouse.
In 1988 he received a masters in creative writing from Syracuse
University, and has been on the faculty since 1997 (he has also been a visiting
writer at various universities, and an adjunct professor at others).
To date he has published three volumes of short stories, Civilwarland in Bad
Decline, Pastoralia and In Persuasion Nation; one novella, The
Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, and The Very Persistent Gappers of
Frip for children. Having now published "a kind of trilogy of
short stories" he plans to...
Powered by a spare, ruminative prose style that recalls the best of Denis
Johnson and Thom Jones, Controlled Burn is an unforgettable debut.
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