I'm a big fan of George Saunders and his distinctively humorous writing style. The stories in Tenth of December continue his evolution from a writer of absurdist stories to a writer of more traditional stories with absurdist edges. The book includes stories like "My Chivalric Fiasco" that wouldn't be out of place in earlier collections, but also stories like "Tenth of December" that are more heartfelt than hilarious. The latter category are the strongest stories in the book.
Saunder's greatest strength is in his surprising choice of details:
Like all Saunders' collections, Tenth of December is too short!
Saunder's greatest strength is in his surprising choice of details:
Years ago at The Illuminated Body he and Molly had seen this brain slice. Marring the brain slice had been a nickel-sized brown spot. The brown spot was all it had taken to kill the guy. Guy must have had his hopes and dreams, closet full of pants, and so on... Looking down at the brain slice Eber had felt a sense of superiority. Poor guy. It was pretty unlucky, what had happened to him. He and Molly had fled to the atrium, had hot scones, watched a squirrel mess with a plastic cup. ("Tenth of December")I love the "closet full of pants" representing the dead guy's promise, and the squirrel representing Eber's joie de vivre. I also loved the exchange about the Flemings and their Russian babies with harelips in chapter 3 of "Home."
Like all Saunders' collections, Tenth of December is too short!
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