I first became aware of George Saunders when I saw him on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as a guest. I admit the guy impressed me with his easy-going demeanor mixed with his sharp intelligence. My awareness of him coupled with his presentation on the show motivated me to seek out one of his books.

Scrolling through them, the plot for, _Lincoln in the Bardo_ looked very intriguing. First I had to look up the definition of bardo and learned it is a limbo realm where the deceased exist while their papers for heaven or hell are processed. OK. Then the idea of Abraham Lincoln traveling to the bardo to find his newly deceased young son compelled me to choose it as the first work to read. The experience of reading it made me feel like I’d gone there with Lincoln. At that point I knew I was hooked and would add George Saunders to my list with Tom Robbins, Chuck Palahniuk, Elizabeth Strout, and Haruki Murakami in the read-whatever-they-have-written-and-will-write club.

Looking at Wikipedia, George’s body of work contains five short story collections, two non-fiction books, one novel (Lincoln in the Bardo,) four essays, inclusion in two anthologies, and a partridge in a pear tree. _Tenth of December_ is the fourth short story collection and was published in 2012. On the cover of the book are stickers that say, “National Book Award Finalist” and “10 Best Books in 2013 by The New York Times Book Review.” Not too shabby.

I make it a point not to read blurbs on books once I know the author’s writing. I already know I like their writing and the opinions of others aren’t useful after that in convincing me to either read it or not read it. Since you may not be familiar with Saunders’ work, I’ll include just a few of the blurbs. If, after reading them, and after reading my review, you aren’t just a little intrigued, I’ll be surprised.

An essential literary figure for our time … Each one of these is as funny and off-kilter and formally ingenious as you want a Saunders story to be, but each one is also something else: unabashedly tender. –The Washington Post

Satirical, searching, sure-footed, the masterful Saunders peers into the wintry twilight ahead, holding love like a fragile lamp to guide us. — O: The Oprah Magazine

Subversive, hilarious, and emotionally piercing. — Jennifer Egan

What the book at its best achieves is a vivid synergy between the ridiculous culture we have built for ourselves and the heartbreak and longing of our inner lives. — Los Angeles Times

Before going any farther, I have to share something I have learned about Saunders’ story formatting after finishing the novel and this collection. He or someone I read describes it as the raincoat. Each story plops the reader into the middle of things, clueless, forced to pay close attention to gather clues to figuring out what the … is going on. It had me putting Lincoln in the… down with confusion and disappointment. As any bibliophile and/or addictive reader knows, there is a perpetual stack of to-reads waiting in the wings, and there is no time to squander it on works that don’t “click.” It sat there on the stack on the coffee table for a few days before I reconsidered and gave it another chance. Thanks go to my wiser angel for urging me to reconsider.

Now that that’s out of the way, on to, _Tenth of December_. There are ten stories, of varying lengths, mostly about twenty pages long but two or three a little bit longer. Topics covered in them include: following parental conditioning when confronted with something that hasn’t been covered in the parenting playbook; family traditions in childhood that we don’t realize until later how important and grounding they were; economic hardship that can lead to extreme conditions and behaviors; ethics in criminal justice and pharmaceutical testing; the gulag of modern office work in corporatocracy; small town life where everybody knows everybody’s business and how that knowledge can elevate or destroy; working class families, keeping up with the neighbors, and labor trafficking; veterans coming back all effed up and trying to re-assimilate; moving up the work food chain; and misfits due to birth and/or circumstance navigating life and love.

The writing flows like honey across the page, and the stickiness of the honey makes it hard to put down. It’s not sweet like honey though. There is very little such prose in here. Each is first a story that needs to be told. Each offers a field of nourishing grain that feeds the heart and soul. As I walked through the fields, every so often is an exquisitely beautiful flower that brings healing tears upon regarding it and letting it just be in its beauty. Saunders is sly in planting those flowers, and the memories of them remain like a long-lasting home remedy.

There is a, “Conversation Between George Saunders and David Sedaris” at the end, where they talk about the book; reading books aloud and if/how works can translate off of the page into audio; and about writing in general. They also talk about Saunders’ current position at Syracuse University. Per wiki, “Since 1997, Saunders has been on the faculty of Syracuse University, teaching creative writing in the school’s MFA program while continuing to publish fiction and nonfiction.”

Rating: 10/10

I noticed at goodreads that the book has a 3.8 rating. That’s way underrated.