Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
'Deceptively light ... deadpan funny ... Saunders, as an American social and literary critic, may be shaping up as the Orwell of the millennium' The Times 'Not since Twain has America produced a satirist this funny' Zadie Smith 'Saunders is a warm and funny guide through familiar and foreign landscapes ... His job is to observe and be funny ... in a tone often reminiscent of Bill Bryson' Observer 'Again and again, Saunders demonstrates that wacky, subversive, formally strange writing is not only contrary to our nation's capitalist spirit, it's the most natural and effective of responses to it. He makes the all-but-impossible look effortless. We're lucky to have him' Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections
Product Description
In this, his first collection of essays, Saunders trains his eye on the real world rather than the fictional and reveals it to be brimming with wonderful, marvellous strangeness. As he faces a political and cultural reality saturated with lazy media, false promises and political doublespeak, Saunders invokes the wisdom of American literary heroes Twain, Vonnegut and Barthelme and inspires us to re-examine our assumptions about the world we live in, as we struggle to discover what is really there.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Saunders' mixed book of essays/stories is every bit as good as his previous books Civilwarland in Bad Decline and Pastoralia, only this book contains a lot of non fiction rather than just fiction. His essays on writers are clever, well thought out and articulate, as you would expect from a literature teacher. He writes about Esther Forbes, Kurt Vonnegut, Donald Barthelme, and Mark Twain with insight, wit and humility.
There is some fiction in the form of the part fiction/part non fiction article "A Brief Study of the British" detailing his book tour in Blighty. The other fiction stories: A Survey of the Literature, Nostalgia, Proclamation, Woof!, and PRKA are average at best but are very short pieces from 3 pages to 10. The best of the fiction is the story "Ask the Optimist!" which is about an optimistic columnist answering readers' queries. Easily one of the funniest pieces I've read by Saunders, it's one of the highlights of this book.
The best parts of the book though are the journalistic pieces that are about 30-40 pages each. The subjects are Dubai and its many luxury hotels; the border between America and Mexico; and a teenager from Nepal who has been meditating without food or drink for 7 months. Each of these were for me the best to read. Saunders' unique voice is a pleasure to read and his geniality and natural storytelling ability make these stories come to life effortlessly.
The other two essays "Thought Experiment" and "The Brain-Dead Megaphone" are think pieces on society. A bit condescending in places, they are nonetheless as well written as the other pieces in this book and as worth reading.
Overall, I cannot recommend this more. It's a fascinating read filled with nuggets of truth and beauty and humour and you can't do worse than this short read. George Saunders. Remember the name. Then pick up one of his books and find out why I wrote this review.
There is some fiction in the form of the part fiction/part non fiction article "A Brief Study of the British" detailing his book tour in Blighty. The other fiction stories: A Survey of the Literature, Nostalgia, Proclamation, Woof!, and PRKA are average at best but are very short pieces from 3 pages to 10. The best of the fiction is the story "Ask the Optimist!" which is about an optimistic columnist answering readers' queries. Easily one of the funniest pieces I've read by Saunders, it's one of the highlights of this book.
The best parts of the book though are the journalistic pieces that are about 30-40 pages each. The subjects are Dubai and its many luxury hotels; the border between America and Mexico; and a teenager from Nepal who has been meditating without food or drink for 7 months. Each of these were for me the best to read. Saunders' unique voice is a pleasure to read and his geniality and natural storytelling ability make these stories come to life effortlessly.
The other two essays "Thought Experiment" and "The Brain-Dead Megaphone" are think pieces on society. A bit condescending in places, they are nonetheless as well written as the other pieces in this book and as worth reading.
Overall, I cannot recommend this more. It's a fascinating read filled with nuggets of truth and beauty and humour and you can't do worse than this short read. George Saunders. Remember the name. Then pick up one of his books and find out why I wrote this review.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
