Present Appertaining To Books CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
| Title | : | CivilWarLand in Bad Decline |
| Author | : | George Saunders |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 179 pages |
| Published | : | February 6th 1997 by Vintage (first published January 16th 1996) |
| Categories | : | Short Stories. Fiction. Humor. Science Fiction. Dystopia |
George Saunders
Paperback | Pages: 179 pages Rating: 4.22 | 16716 Users | 1473 Reviews
Representaion To Books CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
Have you ever heard a politically incorrect joke and laughed, and then felt guilty, but then laughed again? Have you ever driven by a car wreck and slowed down to see the emergency response vehicles, and the vehicle made to look like a damaged accordion? Have you ever watched a reality TV show and saw folks fighting each other and tearing clothes and being separated by bouncers and realized you were hypnotized by the gross lowest common denominator humanity? Have you read Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders? Twisted. Degenerate. Profligate. Absolutely and unconditionally brilliant. I loved it and am seeking counseling. If Kurt Vonnegut had a redheaded stepchild, that illegitimate heir to the black comedic, satirical throne may be George Saunders. Civilwarland in Bad Decline, his 1996 collection of short stories and one novella is Vonnegutesque in the sense that Saunders pokes relentless fun at our society and culture, accepts Louis CK-like the abashed groans, and then plunges ahead with more of his acerbic, vitriolic and wickedly funny as hell slam dunk on our society. But that really doesn’t fit either, a slam-dunk is too pedestrian and neutral of a reference. Saunders takes our capitalistic, Judeo-Christian, western civilization morals and ethics and delivers an MMA beat down that would make Quinton "Rampage" Jackson wince. Vonnegut, Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs and Harry Crews in a literary tag team no-holds barred grudge match. His characters wheeze and moan with pathetic life and piss themselves. There is casual, negligent murder followed by halfhearted suburban, banal regret. Saunders describes flagrant, unapologetic infidelity both literally and metaphorically. His is not just the gutter, but a glittery and neon bright cesspool meandering into a dog bowl. Saunders demonstrates his skill with the unreliable narrator the same way Picasso did with the color blue. If he were a harmful drug he would not be heroin but rather a ball peen hammer and a shot of El Torro tequila. Use with moderation. Take the eponymous story for example, Civilwarland in Bad Decline. An absurd parody of a theme park suffering financial setbacks amidst roving teenage vandals. There are ghosts of Civil War era people haunting the grounds of the fake interactive museum. Then there is a mentally disturbed war veteran – in the fake theme park haunted by formerly real live civil war veterans. Several short stories and a novella – and the theme and tone of the collection coalesces into the novella “Bounty”, a caustic satire of Americana gone all wrong. And so it goes.
Be Specific About Books Concering CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
| Original Title: | CivilWarLand in Bad Decline |
| ISBN: | 0099595818 (ISBN13: 9780099595816) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Tähtivaeltaja Award Nominee (2017) |
Rating Appertaining To Books CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
Ratings: 4.22 From 16716 Users | 1473 ReviewsPiece Appertaining To Books CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
With George Saunders receiving so much positive press these days, I decided to try CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. Now having read the short story collection, I can understand the acclaim. The stories are imaginative, distinctive, unusual, full of bizarre characters inhabiting bizarre worlds. Those characters are more weird circus freaks than everyday neighbors, and those worlds are theme parks you've never visited before. Throughout it all, the tone is an odd mix of resignation, hostility, and
"Possessing perfect knowledge I hover above him as he hacks me to bits. I see his rough childhood. I see his mother doing something horrid to him with a broomstick. I see the hate in his heart and the people he had yet to kill before pneumonia gets him at eighty-three. I see the dead kid's mom unable to sleep, pounding her fists against her face in grief at the moment I was burying her son's hand. I see the pain I've caused. I see the man I could have been, and the man I was, and then everything
Video-review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aiH7...Featured in my Top 5 George Saunders Books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bc7g...George Saunders' debut collection goes a bit over the top with its emotional charge at times, but remains an immensely rewarding, if upsetting, experience. Its stories are balanced and rewarding (although kinda same-y occasionally), the Bounty novella is less elegant but quite unforgettable, and overall he can do things in the span of a page that will make
This is a hard one to rate. I found three of the stories--"CivilWarLand in Bad Decline," "Isabelle," and "The 400-Pound CEO"--absolutely revelatory: trust me, you have never read anything like these stories before. At the risk of adjective overload, they are clever, unsettling, unexpected, and deeply moving--easily five star material. They are dark and apocalyptic but hysterical and heartwarming: the world's gone terribly, terribly wrong, but the narrators are sympathetic, likable guys with
Poor George Saunders must have had a real real bad theme park experience in his youth. This collection of stories makes the dystopia of Zombieland seem sedate. I love Saunders' take on American consumption and the way he is able to shove values and virtues of 20th century America into a funky future that makes all our virtues absurd and makes this anti-utopia seem closer than you might have previously imagined.
What a degraded cosmos.We live in a world where cruelty towards others is becoming more and more accepted how easy we rationalize our self-righteous anger against someone who cut us off, brought us an undercooked meal, said something stupid, etc., and even seen as funny. Saunders, like the ghost of Christmas future, would like to show us where that is leading us. Civilwarland In Bad Decline, his first collection of stories, paints a grim portrait of a near-future filled with everything from
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