Excerpt from In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I, for one, am not about to stand by and let that happen.

Because then what will we have? A nation ruled by the anarchy of unconstrained desire. A nation of willful human hearts, each lurching this way and that, reaching out for whatever it spontaneously desires, unconcerned about the external form in which that desired thing is embodied. That is not the kind of world in which I wish to live.

I, for one, intend to become ever more firmly male, enjoying my golden years, while watching "P" become ever more female, each of us vigilant for any hint of ambiguity in the other. And as our children, "G" and "M," grow, should they begin to show the slightest hint of some lingering residue of the opposite gender, "P" and I will lovingly pull them aside and list all the particulars by which we were able to identify their unintentional deficiency. Then, together, we will devise a suitable correction.

And in this way, the race will go on.

Sincerely,

Ken Byron
115 Delton Way
Leadtown, PA 13246

This is the complete text of the short story, "My Amendment", from Persuasion Nation. Reprinted with permission from Riverhead Books.