In Persuasion Nation - Hardcover

Saunders, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 159448922X ISBN 13: 9781594489228

Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover, 2006

Synopsis

A collection of short satirical works by the author of Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline includes the award-winning "The Red Bow," in which a town is consumed by pet-killing hysteria, and "Bohemians," in which two supposed Eastern European widows attempt to fit into suburban USA. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

George Saunders's political novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil was published by Riverhead Trade Paperbacks in September 2005. He is also the author of Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, both New York Times Notable Books, and The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, a New York Times children's bestseller. In 2000, The New Yorker named him one of the "Best Writers Under 40." He writes regularly for The New Yorker and Harper's, as well as Esquire, GQ, and The New York Times Magazine. He won a National Magazine Award for Fiction in 2004 and his work is included in Best American Short Stories 2005. He teaches at Syracuse University.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The most unnerving fiction boldly envisions the dire consequences of our most hubristic tendencies: our bottomless greed, maniacal competitiveness, hyper-materialism, environmental obliviousness, spiritual callousness, and fear of being different. Following in the footsteps of Orwell, Bradbury, and Atwood, Saunders writes shrewd, off-the-charts speculative fiction, leading a coterie of similarly inclined short story writers that includes Scott Bradfield, Judy Budnitz, and David Foster Wallace. In his third savagely imaginative collection, his most riveting to date, he considers various forms of diabolical persuasion in a techno-colonized world in which advertising governs every aspect of life. Junk-food products are alive and aggressive, and people and animals are either subjected to cruel experiments or forced to live within the confines of commercials and television vignettes featuring rampant cartoonlike violence. Coercion, brainwashing, peer pressure--all are fiendishly engineered to ensure that the repressed and medicated populace wants only comfort and the latest products, and that any rogue intimations of morality and empathy are swiftly crushed. Funny, creepy, mournful, and outraged, Saunder's ingenious and superbly crafted satirical stories blaze like warning lights on the road to hell. Donna Seaman
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About this edition

• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 159448922X
• ISBN 13: 9781594489228
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240