Pastoralia (19 page)
Authors: George Saunders
CIVILWARLAND IN BAD DECLINE
‘For sheer imaginative wildness, George Saunders’ outrageously funny, yet immensely compassionate
Pastoralia
, is in a class of its own’
Liz Jensen, Books of the Year, INDEPENDENT
‘Imagined in vivid detail, paced with compelling deliberateness, voiced with faultless skill and charged with figurative potential, this is a formidably assured exercise in black comedy … Saunders’ writing is a vein of satire, recalling Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut and Carl Hiaasen, yet distinctively his own’
LITERARY REVIEW
‘A cause of delight … with a sense of humour half-way between Beckett and Monty Python, Saunders is an anarchic satirist who draws us into a near-future both surreally strange and utterly recognisable … sharp and blackly comic as ever’
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
‘Saunders, already nominated by the
New Yorker
as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty, prods un-forgivingly and with not a little entertained gleam in his eye. Misfits are his forte, the ugly or the inarticulate or the trailer trash whom nobody else will give the time of day … yet surprisingly the outlook is not bleak; Saunders might be dark, but his writing still permits his characters a humanity and a relentlessness in pursuit of their lowly goals which allows a glimmer of hope that all might not be a complete screw-up’
THE TIMES
‘George Saunders is one of the very best authors of fiction now writing’
TLS
‘My find of the year is George Saunders’ brilliant
Pastoralia’
Rowan Pelling, Books of the Year, DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Remarkable … packed with exquisite, oblique tales of American loners and outcasts, all writen in Saunders’ surreal, damaged prose … deranged and moving in equal doses, it will haunt you long after you’ve put the book down’
UNCUT
‘Outstanding … Saunders possesses the kind of razor-edged satire that has rarely been seen since Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut …
Pastoralia
is bitter stuff but it’s that very misanthropy that makes it a relentlessly funny book’
LONDON METRO
‘Saunders’ off-kilter world is yet again peopled by characters who would feel at home in a Hal Hartley movie or a Chris Morris sketch … expertly crafted,
Pastoralia
is that rare beast: social satire that lacks trite conclusions and is actually funny’
FACE
‘As in
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
, Saunders is a sharply distinctive writer who finds room for humour in the gap between emotion and imagination’
DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Fevered, techni-coloured and zippy. Saunders’ first collection
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
was garlanded with praise by Thomas Pynchon and Tobias Wolff and
Pastoralia
more than lives up to the favourable billing. Saunders is a wildly imaginative comic writer’
SUNDAY HERALD
‘Like a literary take on
American Beauty’
SELECT
‘Captures the inherent craziness of modern America whilst maintaining a guileless charm all of its own … a book to treasure’
BIG ISSUE
‘George Saunders rang my bell with
Pastoralia
, funny and angry stories raging against the bland cruelty of corporate America and speaking up for its blue-collar victims’
Alan Thomson, Books of the Year, HERALD
‘Saunders gets critical acclaim all over the place, and deservedly so … this book is so odd it defies definition but has to be recommended. Saunders’ literary landscapes are familiar yet warped, amusing but sad and often just downright weird … it’s like Monty Python mixed with John Waters with some Jerry Springer thrown in for good measure. Very kooky and cool’
QX INTERNATIONAL
Also available by the same author
THE BRIEF AND FRIGHTENING REIGN OF PHIL
Includes the
In Persuasion Nation collection
Welcome to Inner Horner, a nation so small it can only accommodate one citizen at a time. But when Inner Horner suddenly shrinks, forcing three-quarters of the citizen in residence over the border into Outer Horner territory, the Outer Hornerites declare an Invasion in Progress having fallen under the spell of the power-hungry and demagogic Phil. So begins his brief and very frightening reign…
The novella is followed by
In Persuasion Nation
, a collection of stories by turns touching, funny and sad, and set in a warped, hilarious yet very recognisable American landscape.
Buy this book at
www.bloomsbury.com/georgesaunders
First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP
www.bloomsbury.com
This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
The moral right of the author has been asserted
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
eISBN: 978-1-4088-4149-5
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