Pastoralia

This collection of six stories was my first exposure to Saunders, and it strikes me that the format and context probably wasn't the best for enjoying his sharp writing. I believe all of these stories originally appeared in magazines, and the problem is that by reading one a day over the course of a week, the similarities in setting, tone, theme, character become glaringly obvious. This doesn't mean the writing isn't good, but the collectivization of these stories certainly robs each of its individual power.

The book opens with the title story, which at almost 70 pages, is really more of a novella. It's narrated by a historic reenactor who lives as a caveman in a kind of diorama for the entertainment/education at an odd theme park. From nightly faxes we learn of his exhausted wife, deathly ill son, and the mounting medical bills which are his reason for this rather extreme form of employment. The real tension derives from his "partner", a blowsy "cavewoman" who has plenty of problems of her own, but can't be bothered to stay entirely within character during working hours. Rambling corporate memos start to appear, warning of layoffs, and the narrator has to decide whether or not to snitch on his coworker. The underlying message of this parable is that modern capitalism places many of us in ridiculous meaningless jobs where we are constantly pitted against each other. Message received.

The second story, "Winky", is probably my favorite in the book. We meet a shlub of a single guy as he attends a cheezy self-help seminar whose catchphrase is "Now is the time for me to win!" Fired up, he resolves to kick his weird religious sister out of his house so he can get on with his life, but when push comes to shove, shedding the people who are "crapping in your oatmeal" from your life isn't as easy as it sounds. "Sea Oak" is narrated by another single shlub living with grating kinfolk. This one works as a male waiter/stripper while, in between bouts of slap fighting, his sister and cousin watch TV shows like "How My Child Died Violently" or "The Worst That Could Happen." The funniest part of the book is the description of the latter: "a half hour of computer simulations of tragedies that have never actually happened but theoretically could. A kid gets hit by a train and flies into a zoo, where he's eaten by wolves." Their lives are turned upside down when their hard-working but passive Aunt Bernice dies -- only to come back as a home truth-spouting zombie.

At a brief ten pages, "The End of FIRPO in the World" (a boy's stream of consciousness thoughts as he cycles around his neighborhood) fails to leave much of an impression. Next, "The Barber's Unhappiness," summons forth yet another single shlub, this time a middle-aged barber who lives with his demanding aging mother. His inner thoughts are rendered in depressing and yet hilarious detail as he tries to work out whether or not the woman who smiled at his at a driver's ed class is worth pursuing. (Note: this story is available as a free audio download if you search the internet.) The final story, "The Falls", breaks the mold by presenting the inner thoughts of two narrators and their view of each other as they pass in the woods.

As mentioned before, the characters are pretty repetitive. Most glaring are the protagonists in three of the stories who are are single, friendless males whose paths to a better life are allegedly held down by the annoying female relatives they live with. They are all paralyzed in the face of the same basic problem -- the emptiness of life. A number of reviewers write about the author's "compassion" for his characters, but when you have the same kinds of characters facing the same issues over and over, it gets rather difficult to care about any of them. Similarly, those in positions of authority -- the caveman's manager, the self-help guru, the stripper's manager, etc. all speak in the exact same garbled upbeat corpate-speak-meets-stream-of-consciousness, which only lessens the intended satire. It's distinctive, and certainly funny at times, but strikes the same note over and over.

Ultimately, it's a little hard to see what all the fuss is about with Saunders. Yes, the stories are well-written and yes they are commenting on contemporary American culture. Are they doing so in an interesting way? Not especially. Many reviewers seem to find the plotting and characters somehow wacky, which only seems to point to a certain lack of breadth in reading. While they're not all entirely realistic, they're not light years away from reality either -- kind of like Jonathan Lethem at his mildest.

Pastoralia has received some pretty wild praise--comparisons to Flannery O'Connor, Kurt Vonnegut, and Nathanial West--and so I was excited to try it. I'll admit, though, that it was sort of his and miss for me. Like a lot of literature today, especially short stories, it tries to use the grotesque and the surreal to reflect back on our culture, to exaggerate and reveal our more destructive traits and deficiencies.

A couple of these stories do this successfully. The first, "Pastoralia," is about a man working as a Neanderthal in an amusement park that showcases human life from previous times whose humanity is being stripped away by the corporation. It's a sad (they all are), sometimes funny story that lands a couple of blows on its target. "Winky," too, about a man who's inspired by a self-help seminar to kick his crazy sister out of the house is desperate, but also poignant.

For the most part, though, the stories just felt to me lifeless and weird, without offering illumination. Perhaps it's that I read too many contemporary short stories. It seems as though my response to about 80% of today's short stories is, "That was weird." And so what Saunders produced here, despite his ample skill, just failed to seem fresh. To add to that, Pastoralia is largely a one-note book, covering the same emotional ground in each story. It's well-written, but I fear that it's unlikely to be memorable. The best feeling I can muster for it is appreciation.

There are some very imaginative and witty scenarios played out in the six stories contained within. However, I didn't find them particularly as humorous as I did bleek and disturbing. For instance, there's the man and woman in the title story that play cavepeople to an audience of no one but have to keep up the facade in order to keep a job. Then there's the man who visits a motivational speaker and as he finally musters up the courage to make a drastic change in his life, his dreams come crashing down as he's faced with his reality. The book probably isn't intended to be this dark, but that's the underlying feeling I got from it. I still give Saunders 4 stars for his quirky and off-the-wall writing style. Interpretation is everything with this book.

It's hard to tell if George Saunders' worldview is relentlessly bleak, or if he's creating bleak worlds to show us that ours isn't so bad. His characters are trapped in situations that are infinitely escapable -- or perhaps they're not. There's also a curious religious component to these tales. The lead story, "Pastoralia," repeats Saunders' obsession with fake theme parks. Although the stories here don't have quite the same impact as in "CivilWarLand," they still bring you face to face with your own life choices and your own, dare I say it, whining about life. Evaluation forms figure prominently in these stories as well.

In the book's six short stories, Saunders attempts to turn the looking glass at self and "civilized" society through a hyper-view of cavemen, wanna-bes and over-the-hill losers, but his rhetorical style beats the reader over the head just a little too hard--suggesting we're the morons. The language is dumbed down to make a point, but makes it with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Set up as a plea for the down-trodden hero, what keeps the reader removed from the protagonist is the undermining style in which Saunders makes us feel as if they "had it coming." Saunders himself doesn't seem to like his characters, poking fun of his leading men and their ridiculousness in a manner which is more likely to move readers to pity, laughter, and finger-pointing than empathy for our fellow man--maybe his intent. So what's the lesson? If we're moved by the character's desolate existence in spite of their folly, we're a bunch of bleeding heart, "civilized" Pollyannas? If we blame them for their troubles, we're all just a pack of Right-wing cannibals? With Saunders, there's no middle ground.

Saunders is back with a new collection and shows no sign of slacking. There are some great stories published here in this collection (many of them previously published in the New Yorker). If you don't already know Saunders, I envy you your moment of discovery. This literary genius's work pulled the proverbial rug out from under my feet the first time I read such stories of his as "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" and "Downtrodden Mary's Failed Campaign of Terror." In this collection, "Sea Oak," "Winky," and the title story stand out as exemplary contemporary fictions. Buy this book! and buy _CivilWarLand in Bad Decline_ if you haven't already!

Forget about Saunders' previous collection (CivilWarLand in Bad Decline)-- "The Wavemaker Faulters" is the only story in that collection that I would consider great. In the CivilWarLand collection, we see the work of a nascent artist, still struggling to perfect his own voice-- this voice, of course, even in CivilWarLand, is astoundingly original, but sometimes the intentionally childish narratives UNintentionally make the stories themselves seem childish.

In "Pastoralia," however, we see the work of a fully developed, truly original, truly astounding artist. The childish nature of his narratives coexist perfectly with the worlds of his stories, which indeed could not be told nearly as well with highfalutin language.

Three of the stories in this collection particularly stand out. One of these is "The End of Firpo in the World." "The End of Firpo in the World" does have its flaws (for example, it is a bit heavy-handed), but it is truly funny, truly moving, and truly powerful.

However, the two unadulterated masterpieces in this wonderful collection are "Sea Oak" and "The Falls." The latter, surprisingly, is a bit of an anomaly among Saunders' work-- it is relatively traditional (with emphasis on the word "relatively") compared to Saunders' other work-- but, like Saunders best stories, it is hilarious, and, when the reader least expects it, heartbreakingly powerful. "Sea Oak," on the other hand, is more typical among Saunders' writings-- that is to say, it is likely to be one of the most atypical stories you will ever read. It is utterly hilarious, utterly bizarre, and, once again unexpectedly, utterly moving.

In short, this book is a must for any fan of contemporary fiction. It just may inspire you.

Does this guy Saunders have a lock on the proto-futuristic-pre-wasteland-alternate-present-reality thing, or what? Is anything not made of plastic or human flesh in his world -- where the two seem as interchangeable as they are disposable? Do his characters not sport wounds that puss and spume but refuse to bleed?
Just wow. His stories make the lower gut ache at the thought of what this consumerist culture of ours might render, once the oil's gone and we've completely lost the ability to tell good stories on film; and the way things are going, that's gonna be next year, folks...

I really wanted to like this book. A close friend who shares a lot of my taste in writing (Borges, TC Boyle, ZZ Packer, Lester Bangs, etc.) recommended it as great contemporary short fiction, and since I trust his taste I'll chalk it up to a difference in opinion, but I just couldn't get into "Pastoralia."
I read the book back-to-front, mainly because the last short story, "The Falls," was also the shortest, and I thought a quick read would give me a sense of what Saunders is all about. As it turns out, this was one of my favorite stories in this collection. Saunders effortlessly moves between two very distinct worldviews and creates in Morse a convincing narrator who's paralyzed by his own indecisiveness and self-doubt. The ending left me a little flat, but as a raw writing exercise it was really excellent and left me optimistic about the rest of the book.
On the whole, though, I was really let down. My two biggest criticisms are: 1) Saunders uses the same rambling, stream-of-consciousness style throughout every story. He has a distinct voice and at first I enjoyed getting inside his (neurotic, typically pathetic) character's heads, but after awhile I found the long, run-on sentences and terse writing style (there's almost a complete abscence of anything but the most basic description) to be very tedius. His narrators are all so similar in their overanalysis and cynical worldview that after awhile I couldn't truly distinguish one character for another. I've got to agree with whoever said that Saunders is better at creating caricatures than characters. 2) Saunders stories really lack any emotional heft to them. I've read that his stories are very dark and bleak (agreed) but also that there's a real pathos to his writing, and I fail to see it. His characters are ALL paralyzed by the same trite meaningless of the modern world, and reading about their various neurosis and quirks without any greater understanding of what makes them tick or any attempt to transcend their pathetic existance was about as engaging to me as reading the nutritional information of a McDonald's happy meal. I don't know people like this, I'm glad that I don't, and after 2 or 3 rounds of essentially the same character I found that I cared less and less what happened to them.
I give it two stars because from a completely stylistic point of view, there's some redeeming merit here. Saunders obviously writes well and his best stories, like "The Falls," are a blueprint for subtly moving between points of view. "Winky" was another highlight for me for the same reason. But without any real core theme other than "modern life is trite, meaningless and stupid" (not much of an original thought) this just reads to me like very well-written hyper-realism by somebody who doesn't have much to say.
I've seen Saunders compared to TC Boyle, but for my money Boyle is the much better writer; he creates characters who are flawed and trapped in their own mileau, but characters who are also believable and close enough to reality that their challenges ring true and made me care about the outcome. Saunders reminds me an awful lot more of Frederick Barthelme, another skilled writer who manages to document modern life without ever really making the reader care about it.

Pastoralia is not interesting because it is novel or cutting edge, and debates about whether it is something unheard of ignore the quality of the stories, which lies in their compassion and dispassion. Maybe the resonance I see in the stories is partly due to being a Saundersesque person myself: single, sometimes insecure, harried, addicted to a culture that disgusts me. But there are themes and ideas that go much deeper than demographics or social commentary. I consider Saunders as old-fashioned or up-to-date as Flannery O'Conner. His stories in this book are about people who fail in their aspirations and goals, but by doing so reveal what is golden about their characters. They cannot follow the dicta of selfishness and treachery that are the dominant cultural ethics.

The narrator of The Falls cannot help but sacrifice himself, the narrator of Pastoralia cannot betray his personal loyalties in favor of corporate responsibilities, Firpo cannot help but transcend the self loathing he has learned from a world with no time for losers like him. Does transcendence make stories good? Well,for me, transcendence usually reads as didactic and sappy and dreadful, but Saunders spices his optimism about our true natures by creating characters that are as rotten and weak and subject to pressures as the rest of us are. Maybe even more so.

Great book full of beautiful stories, whether you find them as conservative and traditional as Flannery O'Conner or as radical and freaky as... well, Flannery O'Conner.

I agree with the other reviewer regarding the story "Sea Oak". This has to be one of the wittiest, slickest stories to ever come down the pike. As a writer myself I can truly appreciate the imagination that goes into a work like this, the shaping and forming of words and images necessary in turning a project from plain old spaghetti into something spicier that they might serve in say, Palermo. George Saunders has taken the English language and given it a fabulously tacky pop (t)art flavor, reminding me of "A Clockwork Orange" in its use of linguistic nuance. Bloody good show Mr. Saunders.

another stellar book from mr. saunders. this fella is the most enjoyable literate author going that i know of. his stories actually are stories, unlike the scraps of pretension that are called stories by so many other writers out there. similar in spirit, i would recommend a book of stories by judy budnitz, titled "flying leap." also, an author named kelly link should appeal to fans of george saunders. mr. saunders himself has a new book out which i just purchased and can't wait to read.

I was very close to giving this book only 2 stars because of the overall feeling I got, but actually I enjoyed "Winky" and "The Falls" a bit. The rest, however, lack something significant that Saunders *did* have is his last collection, "Civilwarland in Bad Decline".
In his last collection, the characters were pitiful, unlucky, or otherwise sad. Yet there was a sense, by the end of each story, that somehow that didn't matter, somehow there was something beautiful and redeeming to be found. "Winky" and "The Falls" continue this to a certain degree, but stories like "Pastoralia" do not. In fact, "Pastoralia" left me incredibly unsatisfied. It is a completely opposite idea from the stories in his last collection.
Many people seem to like "Sea Oak", especially the decomposing Aunt, but I fail to see why. To me, the returned Aunt is completely unconvincing as a character. It's as if Saunders wanted her completely selfish (wanting sex, her insistence that "I got nothing"), and yet also completely concerned for her family (wanting to save Troy). Instead of, say, making this a personal conflict within the Aunt, he tries to make the two feelings compatable. I don't buy it.
One last thing to note: the stories are very funny. Much more so than his last work. But, unfortunately, I don't think that makes up for the lack of beauty and goodness.

George Saunders is weird and then some. The America in his short stories is light years away from the picture postcard vision of sun-drenched cornfields swaying in the wind.
In the short story that gives the book its title, Pastoralia is the sort of theme park that would give Disney executives a heart attack. Visitors see people as they lived in past epochs, such as the couple who play Neanderthal cave dwellers, daubing prehistoric paintings on walls, making unintelligible grunting noises and roasting goats. But, there are few visitors to the park and the "cavewoman" Janet is cracking up under the pressure of mounting debts and a drug-addicted son.
She downs a bottle of Jack Daniels bourbon and starts using the sort of expletives no Neanderthal man would know.
In the best and funniest story, Sea Oak, a down-at-heel, bickering family tries to make ends meet in a housing estate that gives new meaning to the term concrete jungle. They spend most of their time mindlessly watching television. The stations have run out of Worst Accidents or When Animals Attack videos and have to resort to The Worst That Could Happen, a half-hour of computer simulations of tragedies that have never happened but theoretically could. A child hit by a train is catapulted into a zoo, where he's eaten by wolves. A man cuts off his hand chopping wood and while staggering screaming for help is picked up by a tornado and dropped on a preschool during recess and lands on a pregnant teacher.
Sea Oak is a modern parable. The family's dead granny comes back from the grave to tell them to get their act together but, unlike the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, she just won't go away, but sits putrefying in her favourite armchair.
"In the morning she's still there, shaking and swearing.
" 'Take the blanket off!' she screams. 'It's time to get this show on the road.'
"I take the blanket off. The smell is not good. One ear is now in her lap. She keeps absentmindedly sticking it back on her head."
Sea Oak is like one long-running sick joke, where you know you shouldn't laugh, but can't help yourself.
Saunders sees humour in misfortune, loneliness and deformity, but it is a cruel humour laced with compassion and that makes his stories not just palatable, but at times moving and wickedly funny.
The misfits he describes are not outcasts to him. The sky may be a different colour on their planet, but the space they inhabit is as real to them as the lives so-called normal people lead.
Not all the stories are consistently good. I read The End of FIRPO In The World three times and still haven't the faintest idea what it's about. But at his best, the arrows that he fires at the alienating culture of urban America hit their mark.

In his stories, he creates whole new, though completely relatable worlds, and you find yourself (uncomfortably) relating to the characters more than you ever expected. Wonderful. Can't wait to read the next collection.

Every so often I read a book that shakes me to the bottom of whatever's in me. This is such a book. The title story still has me quaking; I saw the human race in every sentence and had to laugh and mourn. Sea Oak has lines that are howlers, but it's also terrible and touching. Here is a voice as original and truthful as Flannery O' Connor and Franz Kafka. George Saunders portrays our disgrace with great compassion and comic sensibility. This is enlightened writing. Thank you, Mr Saunders.

Very rarely have I read a book that when finished I am at loss for words. I am not going to make this a review filled with metaphorical sentences or big huge words...To tell you the truth I never knew this book existed until i signed up for the living writers class at my school, syracuse university...and here I am, telling the world that I fell in love with a book that was required reading at school! Pastoralia touched every part of my heart as if i was there with the characters...it is hysterical and serious....satire and truth...I reccomend it to anyone that is able to read, or be read too. They will come out with a new look upon life and human nature. Reciently i had the opportunity to listen to Saunders himself read "sea oak" i laughed more the time he read it then i did the 5 times i read it myself.
Lindsey Freshman Syracuse University.

This book is one of the best short story collections I have read. Saunders has such a bizarre and funny take on life - he is able to make the sad and bleak funny, without making fun of the characters. Sea Oak was my favorite story in this collection. The idea of a decomposing corpse ordering her family around is hilarious, and it is so well written that what could have been merely strange or silly was instead perfect. This book is a must buy. I am looking forward to reading his earlier collection. Enjoy!

So I looked at the cover and at the authors picture, and I made a general assessment of how funny I thought this book would be. Holy [crud]! Each of the stories has a measured out funny/painfully dark and sad balance which I found just thrilling. What a great measure of the American character.

George Saunders is a wizard of language, a humanistic cynic with a sardonic eye always cast on American culture, a howlingly absurd humorist, a frighteningly visionary futurist, and the best read around, for someone who wants all their synapses challenged. Why he hasn't been on the cover of Time magazine baffles me, but then, like you see reflected in his work, these are strange strange times.

The satirical Pastoralia will cause you to harass your book-reading circle, reciting countless excerpts, promising that each will be the last you read aloud - that is until you turn the page and realize the next page is just as funny and cannot be left out.
If you read this book in public, Saunders will embarrass you as you laugh out loud at one bad metaphor after another from a man devouring his enchilada "as if it is alive and he doesn't want to wake it" to your friends and family "crapping it your oatmeal."
So here you go, but don't read all the six short stories in one sitting - let each provide you with its own break from reality.

One of the most compassionate, quirky, and incandescent books I have read, Pastoralia is on my short list of all-time favorites. `Sea Oak' alone is worth the price of admission. My compliments to George Saunders for having written it.

Reading this book is like watching a trashy TV talk show on really good acid. Saunders is the best antidote to the boring writers of today, those writers who think that a carefully-rendered quiet story is enough.
Besides, at one point, we're all going to be asked to show our cocks.

I thought that CivilWarLand in Bad Decline was a modern and different take on the societal pressures we put on ourselves today, but I was simply in tears with this book. Very rarely do I read a book in one sitting, but this one notable exception. My only regret is that it seems the stories cut short just one or two pages short, leaving the reader thirsting for more. But I suppose that is the mark of a great writer.

Excellent. Saunders' satirical tongue is in full effect, as in his CivilWarLand In Bad Decline (a wavemaking machine eats a small boy while the protagonist watches and is upset that he'll have to clean up the mess.) A hilariously scathing indictment of corporate America, a la our fascination with amusement/theme parks, Pastoralia is worth picking up. Let the hilarity ensue.

I love Saunders' writing style. His prose reads easily and vividly. Very enjoyable, sometimes disturbing, Saunders' stories point out the comic tragedy behind several American social institutions: the theme park, the self-improvement Guru, the dirty old man with a good heart, etc, etc; I highly recommend this book. It is the most entertaining thing I have read in a while. I will be acquiring more if not all of Saunders' work soon!

This collection took a bit for me to warm to, but eventually I did. I wasn't a huge fan of the first two stories but after that, I got interested. So if you like strange satiric writings, try this collection of short stories.

In my experience, people with really provincial taste in literature like Saunders because they think he's "edgy." He's funny, I guess, and if you only read the New Yorker and Best American Short Stories, his plots are unusual, even original. Even better, he sniffs at suburban consumer culture, painting it in the most garish colors imaginable. What's an overeducated, culturally aspirational hipster not to love?

Many other reviewers here call Saunders "compassionate," which seems really very wrong to me. The characters are so broadly drawn that it's hard not to think he's offering them up to us as figures of ridicule or even scorn. He never forces his readers out of their comfort zones, to actually feel something for or maybe -- gasp! -- identify with his grotesques.

Compassion is hard, and these stories take the easy ways out. Saunders can find it if he wants, but until then I suggest his readers look for it too. Elsewhere.

Pastoralia is only a forgettable book when compared to the vast majority of works being published nowadays, but is a huge disappointment when compared with Saunders' debut novel, Civilwarland in Bad Decline. Only one short story from Pastoralia -- Sea Oak -- lives up to the Civilwarland's originative creativity. Those who build Pastorlia up into something of an esteemed work are followers of hero-worship, not followers of good satire.

PastoraliaFor anyone looking for stories with a different angle and who is tired of predictable material, George Saunders is very refreshing. Ahhhh....

Apparently anyone looking on down to trash culture and throwing in enough vulgarity can get a great review these days. There are some genuinely funny moments, but overall these stories are as empty and unsatisfying as a can of E-Z Cheez.

This is the worst book I have ever had the misfortune of buying. The stories are juvenile, stupid, shallow, idiotic, immature, repetitive (especially in the stupid phrases incessantly repeated in the lead story Pastoralia) and poorly written, unless the author is 12 years old or younger. To me, the book has no redeeming value of any kind. I am going to Email the Chicago Tribune and complain about the critic who recommended this book. the store should come up with some kind of rating system that would warn unsuspecting buyere about this kind of book. Something like: 1. Highly recommended, 2. Recommended 3. Recommended for those with half a brain or less 4. Recommended for burial (at least six feet under) so it will never again see the light of day.

I was stuck on a plane with no other book to read or I would never have finished this one. The first story of people as theme park exhibits reminded me of Star Trek episode with Orwellian overtones. You can only save yourself by betraying others, and the life you are saving yourself for is probably not worth the self laothing. Perhaps the stories are well written, but the themes are so off-putting that they detract from any enjoyment.