Thoughts on "Pastoralia" by George Saunders

Another wild short story collection! While I liked "Tenth of December" better, this was a great and bizarre read (which is what I love about and expect from George Saunders).
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[@germanfranco4863]

"... the need for recognition and validation is all crafted to be addictive". Quite an interesting, insightful remark. This, and the observations about work here and in the review of Fitzgerald's book, very relevant. Maybe thinking of "Death of a Salesman" is a bit of a leap, but not altogether unrelated? Anyway, very stimulating, as usual.

[@RandyDePasquale]

I finished Tenth of December about a week ago and you're right, he definitely writes some strange characters, or at least writes characters with particular styling. It was interesting the way he used formatting, punctuation, etc. to reflect several idiosyncratic voices. Sometimes it slightly bothered me at the start but it always seemed done with a good purpose in the end.

[@safromnc8616]

In regards to short stories and continuing characters. Agatha Christie had several primary characters throughout her literary career, which she, of course, killed off. One after her own death. If I'm not mistaken, she had one character in a book of short stories whom she killed off, in the short story. I don't recollect ever seeing them in any of her other writings....lol

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

You should check out Evolution Man (Or How I Ate My Father). Classic caveman satire. I've only read one Saunders book and it was the incredibly weird The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil.