As Rufus Redpen explains, in Maria Reva’s Endling, there is only one George Saunders. He’s the famous author who moves successfully between short- and long-form fiction, describing his lifetime of short-story writing as building custom yurts before he began construction on a mansion—a novel. “Oh, sure,” Saunders says: “I
This series launched in 2002, and I’m still here for it. Recently I read both Double Eagle and Black Ice, and thoroughly enjoyed them both. These are books seven and eight in the series, so rather than risk spoiling the overarching storyline, here’s what keeps me coming back.
Kincaid, Edwards, and Bazterrica --In which I return to two previously enjoyed writers' works, and "discover" one new-to-me writer. Although... since the Winter Quarterly, my short story reading has been all over the place. Usually I have a collection or two in my stacks, and I read
There’s that two-story brick building downtown on the corner—where family members bought my Great Aunt wedding gifts when she was a young married woman, where my mother bought her schoolbooks in grade thirteen, where I admired the Hummel figurines when I was a girl. Over the decades, both name
In reading this fifty-page-long story, I followed the instructions that Saunders set out for us in the first story, curious to see whether the process would prove valuable. Saunders, himself, took a unique approach with the first of the seven stories he considers herein; he offered commentary after each
