This collection of nonfiction essays by George Saunders is one of the best things I’ve read lately. Saunders takes an off-kilter, tongue in cheek, satirical attitude towards such subjects as the border crisis, a boy in Nepal who has fasted and meditated for seven months, the invention of Dubai, the failure of the media, and so on. He refuses to be serious about anything, yet he is always, or almost always, deadly serious. His essays on Huck Finn, Donald Barthelme, and Kurt Vonnegut were excellent. I’ve read his novel and several story collections, but this book particularly impressed me.
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton
This novel of ideas doesn’t work for me. A billionaire capitalist vs. environmental activists. The billionaire is the bad guy, though he nearly convinces the activists of his good intentions. No one in this novel is particularly admirable—everyone has a weakness, or several weaknesses, or worse. The action seems to move towards some sort of crisis but then simply falls apart, as if the writer knew she had to bring things to a close but didn’t know how. The end is laughably bad.
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