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9780812984255
Overview
Overview
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST - NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
People - The New York Times Magazine - NPR - Entertainment Weekly - New York - The Telegraph - BuzzFeed - Kirkus Reviews - BookPage - Shelf Awareness Includes an extended conversation with David Sedaris One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet. In the taut opener, "Victory Lap," a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In "Home," a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill--the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders's signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation. Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human. Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of December--through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spirit--not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhov's dictum that art should "prepare us for tenderness." NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"The best book you'll read this year."--The New York Times Magazine
"A feat of inventiveness . . . This eclectic collection never ceases to delight with its at times absurd, surreal, and darkly humorous look at very serious subjects. . . . George Saunders makes you feel as though you are reading fiction for the first time."--Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner
"The best short-story writer in English--not 'one of, ' not 'arguably, ' but the Best."--Mary Karr, Time
"A visceral and moving act of storytelling . . . No one writes more powerfully than George Saunders about the lost, the unlucky, the disenfranchised."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Saunders's startling, dreamlike stories leave you feeling newly awakened to the world."--People
GEORGE SAUNDERS WAS NAMED ONE OF THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD BY TIME MAGAZINE
People - The New York Times Magazine - NPR - Entertainment Weekly - New York - The Telegraph - BuzzFeed - Kirkus Reviews - BookPage - Shelf Awareness Includes an extended conversation with David Sedaris One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet. In the taut opener, "Victory Lap," a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In "Home," a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill--the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders's signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation. Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human. Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of December--through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spirit--not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhov's dictum that art should "prepare us for tenderness." NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"The best book you'll read this year."--The New York Times Magazine
"A feat of inventiveness . . . This eclectic collection never ceases to delight with its at times absurd, surreal, and darkly humorous look at very serious subjects. . . . George Saunders makes you feel as though you are reading fiction for the first time."--Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner
"The best short-story writer in English--not 'one of, ' not 'arguably, ' but the Best."--Mary Karr, Time
"A visceral and moving act of storytelling . . . No one writes more powerfully than George Saunders about the lost, the unlucky, the disenfranchised."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Saunders's startling, dreamlike stories leave you feeling newly awakened to the world."--People
GEORGE SAUNDERS WAS NAMED ONE OF THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD BY TIME MAGAZINE
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Saunders, George
- ISBN: 9780812984255
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 7.90 x 0.80
- Number Of Pages: 288
- Publication Year: 2014
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How I learned to stop worrying and love short stories.
Elizabeth C. - 1 year 8 months agoI used to avoid short stories at all cost. When reading during my commute, I'd inevitably end up in the middle of one story when I got to my stop, which meant I would finish that story and start the next during my next commute. It entirely threw off my enjoyment, and I displaced that annoyance until I hated an entire art form. Neat work, brain. This all changed when a friend pressed her copy of George Saunders' Tenth of December into my hands. She made me promise to read it, and I keep my promises, so in short order I found myself on the subway reading the beginning of the first story. I was immediately hooked. The heart, the wit, the 'disturbitude' - I read it voraciously, and I loved every single story. The peppering of dystopic elements was a delight. By the end of the week, I had a new favorite book. Tell me two years ago that one of my top five favorite books would be a collection of short stories and I would have laughed in your face so hard you'd forget you were a time traveller obeying a request from future-me and you'd leave the bar embarrassed and confused. But here I am! Anyway, I have to go, all this talking about Tenth of December makes me want to read it again, so I think I'll go do that.
HPB Staff Review -
Short stories are often the best stories
Cole R. - 2 years 3 months agoGeorge Saunders is one of the most distinctive and valuable voices in American letters these days. With antecedents like Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut, he belongs to a grand tradition of writers that have you thinking you are being simply entertained but then you find he has ambushed you with profundity. He is endlessly inventive in finding ways to engender empathy in the reader with characters from all over the map and situations so far outside of your normal life that it is astounding. The guy is a genius.
HPB Staff Review -
Beyond merely original
Bill M. - 4 years 5 months agoIf you've never read anything by George Saunders, this is a great place to start. If you've read some of his work but not this one, I envy you. I wish I could go back in time and experience these stories for the first time again. You are in for a real literary treat. I hesitate to delve too deeply into the stories themselves because this is one of those pieces of art where the less you know going in, the more you'll get out of it. Within these 251 pages, Saunders manages to examine the complexities of just about every aspect of human nature. Instead of shrewdly expressing his ideas on, say, idealism, fear, and horror, he'll put you right into the minds of two teenagers and an evil adult, exploring every little thought, and sudden departures from train-of-thought, going through their heads. He'll let each of them live the story in their own minds and allow you to join them. He'll also allow you to decide what to make of it. The common theme throughout these stories is all about being alive and what it means. In the title story, you will learn to appreciate what it means to be alive. I never thought I would find myself typing a sentence as clichd as the last one, but I never read a story like Tenth of December before.
HPB Staff Review -
National Book Award finalist for a reason
April W. - 7 years 10 months agoGeorge Saunders' Tenth of December is a revelation in short story writing. Saunders has a way of immersing the reader in the mind of his amazingly varied characters while maintaining a style and voice that is so distinctly recognizable as his own. The humor is biting throughout: the ridiculousness of the world and its inhabitants has never been so entertaining and has never been presented quite this way before. This guy didn't receive the "genius grant" for nothing!
HPB Staff Review