Edited by author 12-22-2003 09:30 PM
Pete, been reading some Saunders after your review (hey, whaddaya know?! they woik!) and was thinking of how so many books are reviewed in "scenic" or "filmic" (?) terms -- ie, compared to a film style as a positive.

Asking as someone who's read only a little, do you think Saunders could be better compared to a comic, or graphica, style? It strikes me that he goes along in narrative mode and then has these little one-panel pullouts that remind me of Farsides. Then he's off again in another direction. I think his work would be difficult to film (unless maybe Gilliam did it), but it might easily slip into another scenic medium like comics. Could his work be adapted to either genre?

[I guess what I mean is, does his work better translate visually towards motion or tableau?]

Well, I can see "CivilWarLand" as a Coen brothers film.

It is being adapted. Ben Stiller is involved somehow.

Ah, I wish to speak. Having read the Darbyshire et al review on this Sauders, I read the short piece in the NYer which was referred to in said review. Sure I chuckled a few times at the expense of one character or another, but fellas, really, thin stuff. It wasn't dark or bleak as you seemed to suggest, it was shallow and easy. The language was flat and uninteresting, the tone was glib, the voice was solipsistic. That's satire? Clearly, when it comes to Pete and I, we have differing tastes (as in, I have some) but even for you mate this is a new low. Defend yourself against liking this American rubbish! Why should I read Saunders when I have Coetzee, Banville, that huge Lowell tomb, and even an old Iris Murdock novel sitting on my bedside table?

Hey, now, I thought the story by Roddy Doyle in the previous issue was bang on. Did you like it Pete? Surely we can agree there?

Jonathan,

The Saunders piece in The New Yorker is labeled a “memoir.” So no, it’s not really satire. It is solipsistic, which is part of the point (and perhaps inevitable in an autobiographical piece), as Saunders is looking back at a time when he was lost in himself. As the accompanying interview points out, it’s more Dickensian than satirical, although I’d call it Dickens as channeled through Raymond Carver. (Whereas Saunders’ fiction strikes me as a cross of Thomas Pynchon and Stuart Ross.)

What I find interesting about The New Yorker piece is the direction it takes away from the theme-park angles of a lot of his work. It focuses more on the subject of graceless losers – the people who keep losing and can’t stop because that’s just the nature of America. I think that’s the real heart of his stories, too, so it’s an interesting piece to consider in terms of Saunders’ work overall.

I do find his fictional line more interesting than his nonfictional, but that's likely normal. If you want to check out his fiction, you can read “Sea Oak” here: http://www.barcelonareview.com/20/e_gs.htm

But frankly, if your bedside reading is Coetzee, Banville and Iris Murdoch – you must sleep really well – then Saunders is probably not the guy for you.

Haven’t read the Roddy Doyle story yet. I’ll check it out and get back to you.

BTW, congrats on Verandah People making January’s best-of-2003 list.

Jonathan, one cannot eat leafy greens all the time. Surely, every now and then some chocolate cake is in order? It mightn't be as "nutritious" (in "finger quotes") as a Lowell and Coetzee salad, but doesn't it taste terrific?

Oh. I see I spelled Murdoch wrong. Charming. Now Peter, whatever, you're smarter than me so I'm sure you're right on this whole thing and I am so unlikely to read anything else by him I should just go away from here now (Ah, Stephen Fry, when can't you be ripped off.) But, that said, and I think I speak for everyone when I say this, we'd like you to stop saying "simulacra". We think it causes SARS.

Claude: I have no idea what you are talking about but you sound hungry. Eat something please.
 
Yes, the Januarymagazine.com nod was very nice, unexpected etc.

Jonathan,

All right, I'll stop using the big words, as long as you agree to start using punctuation properly.

i don't know saunders' work, but i'm curious now to check it out. did read the NYer piece, and agree with JB ... though it interested me to see in the saunders interview that he said he went through a period in his 20s of writing really bad realism because he thought realism was "real writing". i wonder if the NYer piece was pushed out to feed what's left of that anxiety?

also what interested me was the non/realism tension in his work ... and his description of his evolution as a writer. like many debates, this is often structured as a either/or ... but surely there's a spectrum ... and work can fall at multiple points along the line. carver, for example, is a "k-mart realist", but he's got a strong fabulist streak, too.

I just found this link to Saunders' comments about his own work:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/featu...103-2444804-9811810

And, uh, this:

http://www.georgesaundersland.com/guilty1

Peter, I had a flashback when you mentioned Saunders as the lovechild of Pynchon and Stuart Ross...it was Stu who first put me on to Saunders, about six (!) years ago. I didn't appreciate CivilWarLand as much back then as I do now ( when you asked me to participate in the discussion I called Saunders "repetitious," which I still think is true, but I'm okay with it now). Pynchoneon-Rossian, how's that for a summary of Saunders's work? It sounds like a new type of radiation.

Jonathan, your bedside table must be constructed from carbon steel to support all that weight.

Yeah, Saunders and Ross complement each other nicely. Somebody should put them out as a double book, like those old sci-fi books. You could read Ross, then flip the book over and start on Saunders.

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