This was part of the Christmas bounty from my sister in 2022. I recall starting this in early 2023, and then abandoning it for something a bit lighter. It felt like a book that needed vacation time to devote to it, and so now was the right time.
This collection of nine stories is good, but sadly doesn’t rise to the level of excellence in Tenth of December. The stories felt somewhat repetitive, of that previous collection and of each other. There are several that involve characters informing or snitching on each other, and a few involving dystopic setting where individuals or groups are segregated from and subservient to others for creepy or nefarious purposes. Like the previous collection, one story is in the form of a letter, which, although well written, is only very thinly veiled political commentary (see quote below). While distracting, it was also thought-provoking, as it could be read as reflecting sentiments about either side of the political spectrum. A briefer commentary from the story, “Elliott Spencer”:
“Have I ever deceived you? Or withheld or misrepresented certain information? It was for your own good. To make your life better…Sometimes, to do good, there are steps along the way at which goodness must be temporarily set aside or lost sight of…”
Far right or far left? In today’s world, it could be either or both. Regardless, for me it sounded more like the author’s voice than the characters’, and once seen couldn’t be unseen in any of the stories.
“Sparrow” was the only story in any way uplifting, in which a timid and nondescript woman finds happiness in an ordinary way. In all others, there is a fatalistic acceptance of tyranny or violence or both that felt creepy – not a bad thing in a story, but the repetition of the themes and messages ultimately undermined their impact.
The longest story, “Liberation Day”, featured a longish presentation of Custer’s Last Stand, and included a longish quote (see below) that resonated with me as similar to the cynical nihilism of the central character in The Three Body Problem – humans are too selfish and violent to be trusted to bring about a peaceful world.
I like Saunders’ writing enough that I will read more. His previous book, Pastoralia, is one of three of his on the NYT 21st century book list, so that will be my next read of his (I’ve already read the others, Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December).
Fate: little book library.
1 – a murder
18 – short stories
27 – a gift
29 – leftover
From “Liberation Day”, from the part about the performance of Custer’s Last Stand:
“Why? Why must this be? Is there not abundance enough and beauty to support all in peace, were that the general intention?
There is.
But peace is not the general intention. It is not the intention of the army. It is not the intention of the nation the army represents. The intention of the nation is to have this land for itself, uncontested.
The intention of the tribes is to continue to exist, here on land that, in truth, has changed hands many times before, often by violence, i.e., on land seized by force from other people. Members of the tribes have also set upon peaceful homes, abducted women, killed children.
Peace is not, apparently, the general human intention, although in the spare hour (in the dear home, in the individual heart) it may sometimes seem to be so.”
From “Love Letter”, in which a grandfather writes to a grandson about politics:
“We were not prepared to drop everything in defense of a system that was, to us, like oxygen: used constantly, never noted. We were spoiled, I think I am trying to say. As were those on the other side: willing to tear it all down because they had been so thoroughly nourished by the vacuous plenty in which we all lived, a bountiful condition that allowed people to thrive and opine and swagger around like kings and queens while remaining ignorant of their own history.”
rclr 
Leave a comment