Reviews

Tenth of December by George Saunders

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angus_mckeogh's review against another edition

2.0

Burned through this because Klosterman mentioned this author and book specifically in his collection of essays. The essay was talking about authors who might be remembered as one of the greatest writers in the previous century as viewed from the future. I'll have to respectfully disagree. This book was some sort of quasi-dystopian collection which ended up being uninteresting and strangely written. Just wasn't that good. Shame. Perhaps I went into it with far too many expectations.

triplets131's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense fast-paced

4.25

guppyur's review against another edition

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2.0

I wanted to like this one more than I did. I had never heard of the author until a friend recommended him; I then found his name popping up a lot as I read this collection. Saunders is a current literary darling, specializing in short stories, and has been generally very well-received.

Tenth of December is a collection of ten short stories. Length varies dramatically, from a couple of pages to much longer. Saunders has been praised for his style; initially I took it to be a conceit of one of his characters, but it's pretty consistent across the board. I liked it more when I thought it was character specific. As the pages went on it began to grow stale.

Saunders' wit is supposedly his trademark. The three people who eventually recommended him to me all found him funny; I rarely did. I compare him to David Sedaris. Many people think David Sedaris is hilarious; I have a hard time getting past the dysfunction, so instead of making me laugh, Sedaris bums me out. I think something similar might be at work here. I frequently found Saunders depressing, and there wasn't an adequate payoff to make the experience feel worth it. Not that I didn't like any of them; a few were very good. By and large, though, I didn't enjoy most of my time with Saunders.

Favorite stories from this collection: Escape From Spiderhead, Tenth of December

Least favorites: Puppy, The Semplica Girl Diaries

jr2234's review against another edition

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5.0

I LOVE George Saunders. This collection of short stories was offbeat, satirical, and playful while diving headfirst into darkness and chaos. I find many of his stories similar in tone to David Sedaris.

Saunders’ characters feel deeply human and relatable. Most stories require the reader to play along with a strange narrative style or unusual construction, but I find the reward is always worth it.

I particularly enjoyed “Al Roosten” and the titular story, “Tenth of December” though don’t think there was a weak story in the bunch.

missyjohnson's review against another edition

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1.0

sometimes I hate that I get into the the mode of "finish what you start" this was one that I should have put aside early on but i finished instead. depressing stories I fell for the National book award label on the front. this book was a finalist. I wonder why, maybe a slow year

louisejulig's review against another edition

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I adored A Swim In a Pond In the Rain, and thought the audiobook of Lincoln in the Bardo was a little weird but cool, so I picked up Tenth of December when I saw it at a used bookstore. But I usually read books before going to sleep and the first two stories in this collection gave me really disturbing dreams. I don’t read a lot of fiction to begin with and just do not think I am a Saunders short story person. I kept the book for a couple years thinking I might try again but then gave up.