Liberation Day

Gabi's Review

George Saunders has achieved an exceptional collection of stories for our times, funny sad, disturbing and hyper clever. There are no fixed agendas or forced conclusions but without fail each one causes us to think or ponder. His innovative framing of topical issues when massive social and political divide prevail, are a wise and generous balm. Social and political subjects like consent, violence, aggression, workplace dynamics, politics, love and relationships, each find clever re-invention. 

The Mom of Bold Action is a hysterically funny story about unintended consequences, writers angst, overthinking, best intentions and so much more. Liberation Day, title of both book and its first story title is an extraordinary comic/horror take on the dynamics of consent and dissent among performing artist slaves and their owners. Sparrow the story of a mousy non-descript woman who never ventures an opinion for fear of rejection finds a functional flourishing love with a narcissist.

Alongside the unexpected there is the empathetic rendering of scene and character that earns George Saunders his "one of a kind" reputation. Five stars for this collection, give it to the thinkers in your clan.

Publishers Reviews

The 'best short story writer in English' (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose - wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned - Saunders continues to challenge and surprise- here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.

'Love Letter' is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and each other. 'Ghoul' is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his 'reality.' In 'Mother's Day', two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. And in 'Elliott Spencer', our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed - his memory 'scraped' - a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters.

Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention as Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.