Dollbaby 9780143127499
Laura Lane McNeal, 2014
Penguin Books
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780143127499
Summary
It’s the summer of 1964 and eleven-year-old Ibby has just lost her father in a freak bicycle accident. Undone by the whole ordeal, Ibby’s mother Vidrine unceremoniously dumps Ibby, along with an urn of her father’s ashes, at the New Orleans home of Ibby’s paternal grandmother, Fannie.
The big old house with its boarded-up bedrooms, Victorian embellishments and strange food are odd enough to a little girl who’s grown up in the state of Washington. Then there’s the grandmother she never knew she had: Fannie is a volatile woman who runs a betting ring on her back porch, has a history of asylum stays, and a mysterious past that Ibby has been forbidden to question.
But soon, Fannie’s black cook Queenie, and her daughter Dollbaby, help Ibby orient herself to her new surroundings, welcoming her into the fold with delicious Creole meals, handmade clothes, and plenty of seasoned advice about dealing with her unpredictable grandmother. Fannie, for her part, quickly takes to her new role as a grandmother, pampering Ibby with her very own perfume, a birthday lunch at historic Antoine’s, and a sense of family legacies.
Though at first Ibby bristles at Fannie’s old-fashioned ideas like party dresses and gloves, she eventually warms to Fannie and realizes that beneath her eccentric and impulsive manner,, Fannie has a real heart. As Fannie’s tragic personal history comes to light, Ibby begins to see her own family history more clearly, finding new appreciation for Fannie’s role in her life. What was supposed to be only a temporary stay evolves into a more permanent, although tentative, arrangement as both Fanny and Ibby discover the ties that bind them together.
Meanwhile, the Civil Rights movement is stirring up New Orleans. Everyone seems to be taking sides, and not even Dollbaby and Queenie agree on the direction the country is headed under President Lyndon Johnson’s new law. If that’s not enough, Ibby’s growing friendship with Dollbaby’s daughter, Birdelia, makes Ibby a target for racist neighbors.
Still, there’s an ache in her heart for all she’s lost—her beloved father, and a mother who left her for a visit, then disappeared without a trace. As she wonders whether her mother will ever come back for her, Ibby must decide if chasing the past will give her what’s she looking for, or if this new crazy quilt of a family is where her heart truly belongs.
Laura Lane McNeal’s vividly drawn characters, caught in the vortex of cultural change, are as bold and charming as New Orleans itself. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1954-55 (?)
• Where—New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
• Education—B.F.A., B.B.A., Southern Methodist University; M.B.A., Tulane.
• Currently—lives in New Orleans, Louisiana
Laura Lane McNeal grew up In New Orleans where people laugh a lot, talk with their hands, love good music, good food, and will make up any excuse for a party.
After receiving two undergraduate degrees from Southern Methodist University (a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Business Administration), she went on to earn an MBA from Tulane University.
She spent most of her career in advertising, working for firms in New York and Dallas, before returning to New Orleans where she started her own marketing consulting firm and became a free-lance writer as well as a decorative artist. In 2005, when the devastation of Hurricane Katrina left her with having to rebuild her life, Laura seized the opportunity to fulfill her lifetime dream of becoming a writer. She hasn't stopped since.
Laura resides in New Orleans and is married with two sons. Dollbaby is her first published novel; she is presently working on a second. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Don't be surprised if you see McNeal's book in a lot of beach totes along the Gulf Coast this summer.
New Orleans Times Picayune
When someone asks you for a great book to read, usually you pause and think about genre and authors and then give a few options. But every now and then there’s a book you tell everyone to read, because it is that good. Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal is that book.
Durham Herald-Sun
(Starred review.) Ibby Bell is dumped by her mother on her grandmother's doorstep, holding an urn with the ashes of her recently deceased father.... Bursting with believable conflict and lovable characters, along with a lush and evocative portrait of the Crescent City during the civil rights era, this debut novel marks the arrival of an original and assured writer. —Julia M. Reffner, Fairport, NY
Library Journalb
A touching coming-of-age story that is sincere and poignant.
Booklist
[A] touching coming-of-age tale brings to life Civil Rights–era New Orleans.... McNeal’s portrait of a time and place is rich enough to mitigate the flaws. Slowly, a picture of Fannie’s past emerges...final secrets are revealed—truths that will tug a tear from the hardest of hearts. Rich characterization makes McNeal’s debut a lovely summer read.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Ibby’s arrival to Fannie’s home is the catalyst for change. How does Ibby transform the household?
2. Ibby is warned early on not to ask Fannie about her past. Why is she given this advice?
3. Why does Vidrine leave Ibby with Fannie? Later, after four years, why does Vidrine suddenly come back and what does she wish to achieve from the visit?
4. As Ibby lives in Fannie’s house, she begins to uncover its hidden truths, both physically and emotionally. What secrets does the house hide, and what do they mean to her?
5. In some ways Fannie is very old-fashioned, yet in other ways she seems quite progressive for someone of her era. How would you characterize her, and why?
6. Dollbaby wants to participate in the civil rights protests but Queenie tries to discourage her. What is the difference between their views on the issue and why do you think they differ?
7. As the era unfolds, what are its political effects on Fannie’s household? How do the realities of race and class trickle down to affect the characters’ lives?
8. Fannie tells Ibby that she must be “willing to live the life that is waiting for you.” What does she mean by this, and how does the advice relate to both of their lives?
9. Through this novel McNeal seems to suggest that family is what we make it. How does Ibby’s adopted family influence the person she ultimately becomes?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Laughing Monsters
Denis Johnson, 2014
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780374280598
Summary
A high-suspense tale of kaleidoscoping loyalties in the post-9/11 world that shows one of our great novelists at the top of his game.
Roland Nair calls himself Scandinavian but travels on a U.S. passport. After ten years' absence, he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to reunite with his friend Michael Adriko. They once made a lot of money here during the country’s civil war, and, curious to see whether good luck will strike twice in the same place, Nair has allowed himself to be drawn back to a region he considers hopeless.
Adriko is an African who styles himself a soldier of fortune and who claims to have served, at various times, the Ghanaian army, the Kuwaiti Emiri Guard, and the American Green Berets. He’s probably broke now, but he remains, at thirty-six, as stirred by his own doubtful schemes as he was a decade ago.
Although Nair believes some kind of money-making plan lies at the back of it all, Adriko’s stated reason for inviting his friend to Freetown is for Nair to meet Adriko’s fiancée, a grad student from Colorado named Davidia. Together the three set out to visit Adriko’s clan in the Uganda-Congo borderland—but each of these travelers is keeping secrets from the others.
Their journey through a land abandoned by the future leads Nair, Adriko, and Davidia to meet themselves not in a new light, but rather in a new darkness. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1949
• Where—Munich, Germany (of American parents)
• Education—M.F.A., University of Iowa, USA
• Awards—National Book Award; Whiting Writer's Award; Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize
• Currently—lives in Arizona and Idaho, US
Denis Hale Johnson is an American author who is known for his short-story collection Jesus' Son (1992), his novel Tree of Smoke (2007), which won the National Book Award, his novella, Train Dreams (2011), and The Laughing Monsters (2014) He also writes plays, poetry and non-fiction.
Johnson was born in 1949 in Munich, West Germany. He holds an MFA degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, where he has also returned to teach. He received a Whiting Writer’s Award in 1986 and a Lannan Fellowship in Fiction in 1993.
Johnson first came to prominence after the publication of his short story collection Jesus' Son (1992), whose 1999 film adaptation was named one of the top ten films of the year by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Roger Ebert. Johnson has a cameo role in the film as a man who has been stabbed in the eye by his wife.
Johnson's plays have been produced in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Seattle. He is the Resident Playwright of Campo Santo, the resident theater company at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco.
In 2006-2007, Johnson held the Mitte Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.
Johnson lives with his wife, Cindy Lee, in Arizona and Idaho. He has three children, two of whom he homeschooled; in October, 1997 he wrote an article for Salon.com in defense of homeschooling. (Adapted from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
[S]ingle catastrophe is what fuels the demands and mysteries of literature. The wreckage is what essential writers particularize, and Denis Johnson's interests have always been in wreckage, both individual and universal. If Train Dreams (a Pulitizer finalist) dealt with the dignified tragedy of a past American antonym, The Laughing Monsters addresses the vanishing present, a giddy trickle-down of global exploitation and hubris—the farcical exploits of cold dudes in a hard land.
Joy Williams - New York Times Book Review
[A] stunner: the story of Roland Nair, a rogue intelligence agent looking to make a big score in Sierra Leone amid the detritus and chaos of the post-war-on-terrorism world. Johnson's sentences are always brilliant, but it is in the interstices, the gray areas of the story, that he really excels.
David Ulin - Los Angeles Times
National Book Award winner Denis Johnson has brilliantly plumbed the mystical and the macabre in such works as Tree of Smoke and his instant classic Jesus’ Son. The Laughing Monsters delivers a more commercial, post-9/11 tale of intrigue, deception, romance, and misadventure set in West Africa without losing Johnson’s essentially poetic drive.... With each twist, Johnson deftly ups the stakes while adding to the cavalcade of entrepreneurs, assassins, seers, and smugglers that populate the book, tuning us in to the roiling political realities and cultural complexities of Africa today.... This visionary novel is always falling together, never apart. That’s Johnson.
Lisa Shea - Elle
Much of the novel follows the shifting military and political loyalties in a post-9/11 world, and there is plenty of subterfuge and secrecy, but Johnson’s at his best when describing the pervasive, threatening strangeness of Roland’s life in Africa.... [S]ome effective nods to Heart of Darkness all help to make the book’s setting its strongest character.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) In a work that's part spy novel and part buddy tale, Johnson aptly locates his portrayal of a shadowy world of complicated relationships and ever-shifting alliances in one of the more broken places on the planet. This is what you might get if you combined Casablanca's cynicism and sense of intrigue with a touch of Heart of Darkness post-9/11. —Lawrence Rungren, Andover, MA
Library Journal
[A] taut, Conrad-by-way-of-Chandler tale about a spy who gets too close to the man he's shadowing in Africa.... As in any good double-agent story, Johnson obscures whose side Roland is really on, and Roland himself hardly knows the answer either.... Johnson expertly maintains the heart-of-darkness mood.... [A]n intriguing metaphor for [post-9/11 lawlessness].
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
For I Have Sinned (A Cate Harlow Private Investigation)
Kristen Houghton, 2014
Koehler Books
253 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781940192710
Summary
Private investigator Cate Harlow finds herself involved in two cases that seemingly have nothing to do with each other; she soon discovers they may be bizarrely connected.
While working the cold case of a boy who went missing ten years ago, she receives an early morning call from her ex-husband, a homicide detective, informing her about a recent murder; the horribly mutilated body of a priest, wearing only a clerical collar has just been found off of Interstate 95 in New York.
The murder is eerily similar to a troublesome and unsolved case that Cate worked on less than a year ago. The only difference between the two victims is that the second dead body has a hand-written message in Latin scrawled across the inside of the priestly collar; a message from Dante's Divine Comedy, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here." With the priests’ murders heavily on her mind, Cate's investigation into the missing boy leads her to the august office of a New Jersey archbishop who, she strongly believes, has been hiding pedophile priests for years by transferring them from one parish to another.
When Cate discovers that there may be a solid connection between the priest murders and the missing person cold case, she puts her own life on the line to not only solve her cold case but bring a pedophile to justice. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 12, 1967
• Where—Carmel, California, USA
• Education—M.A., Middlebury College
• Currently—lives in New York, New York
Visit the author's website.
Follow Kristen on Facebook.
Book Reviews
A masterfully woven story about the horrors of the sex abuse scandals rocking the Roman Catholic Church and the impact on both victims and their families. Private investigator Cate Harlow handles the case of a missing boy, a murderer, and a pedophile priest with a perfect combination of hard-nosed detective skills, gut instinct, wry humor, and compassion. A very satisfying read by Kristen Houghton. This is a fascinatingly crafted story that is a true page turner.
Greg Archer - Huffington Post
Private Investigator Cate Harlow makes her literary debut and rocks the reading world with her style, intelligence, sex appeal, and passion for solving a murder case on her own terms. For I Have Sinned (A Cate Harlow Private Investigation) is the first of a series which showcases this phenomenal female private investigator created by the brilliant writer, also phenomenal female, Kristen Houghton. If you enjoy a good read, ...prepare yourself for a GREAT read. This is sure to hit the best-seller lists!
A. William Hopper, book critic
A perfectly wonderful book by Kristen Houghton. What appears to be crimes of revenge are interwoven with the cold case of a boy who has been missing for ten years. This book was hard to put down. As the clues are slowly revealed, the true story of an unthinkable crime that was committed begins to come to light. The main character of Cate Harlow, PI, of Cate Harlow Private Investigations, captured, and held my interest from beginning to end. Cate tells her clients, "I'm very good at what I do," and she is!
Melissa Ford - Morris Post Book Review
This book makes a powerful statement about the horrifying issue of child sexual abuse by clergy. A master observer of people and life... Kristen Houghton's book is a must read thriller for all.
Maria Rago, Ph.D., author of Shut Up Skinny Bitches!
A missing person cold case, a murdered priest; How are they connected? Private investigator Cate Harlow is determined to find out. This book gave me everything that a reader wants in a thriller and introduced me to characters I want to see again and again in future books in the series.
Marla Rosenthal, Sacramento Book Reviewer
Cate Harlow is a gem! A self-aware woman in touch with her own needs and feelings, who can both take it and dish it out. Her sensitivity is leavened with an intelligent, level-headed approach to getting the job done with or without a gun. She is a model for other woman as she weaves her way through a tough, well-plotted story with delicacy and aplomb, somehow managing to solve the mystery and juggle steamy romance at the same time. Her author is a sharp storyteller on a mission to bring the bad guys to justice.
Marilyn Horowitz, author of The Book Of Zev
How would you feel if you were the victim of clerical abuse as a child? For I Have Sinned will rocket you through this world, with Cate Harlow leading the charge. While trying to solve the mystery of a decade old missing child case, Cate also becomes tangentially involved with the gruesome murder of two priests. Little does she know that she too will become a kidnapping victim as she interjects herself into solving the mystery of the murdered priests. Houghton is a master at weaving these two stories into a tale about the disturbing world of child abuse by those who should be the most trusted. Put that together with the ever-charming character of Cate Harlow, and the result is a read you don’t want to overlook.
Darin Gibby, author of The Vintage Club
Discussion Questions
1. What were your initial feelings when reading the book; how did the story affect you?
- Did the flashback scene engage you? Did the short dialogues at the end of specific chapters add to the story as a whole?
- How did you feel about the subject matter and how it was handled?
2. Describe the main character—personality, her feelings about being a private detective, her ideas on life. What do you think of her wry sense of humor and showing of some vulnerability? Does this make her a relatable character? Describe the other characters in the story. How do they help the storyline move along?
- What are the dynamics between Cate, Will, and Giles?
- Cate believes in the law but says that she sometimes does things in a "slightly illegal" way? Do you approve of this?
- Describe Cate's conflicted feelings about taking on a cold case. Why does she decide to help her client locate her brother?
- How does the prim and proper Myrtle Goldberg Tuttle, Cate's part-time secretary balance Cate add to the story?
- Cate's best friend, Melissa, Cate's "source of much-needed girl power," lives well and has some very wealthy male clients. Do you approve or disapprove of Melissa's somewhat shady profession?
- How does Cate's kindness to a homeless man living near her office and the "weekly twenty" plus food she gives him define her character?
3. What do you learn about Cate Harlow by the end of the book? How does the cold case and its resolution affect Cate?
4. Is the plot engaging—does the story interest you? Is this a plot-driven book: a fast-paced page-turner? Or does the story unfold slowly with a focus on character development? Were you surprised by the plot's twists and turns?
5. Talk about the book's structure. Is it a continuous story...or interlocking short stories? Does the time-line move forward chronologically...or back and forth between past and present? Does the author use a single viewpoint ? Why do you think the author chose to tell the story the way she did—and did it make a difference in the way you read or understood it?
6. What main ideas—themes—does the author explore? (Consider the title, often a clue to a theme.) How does the use of three Latin phrases Cate translates add to the story?
7. Cate's comment, "When you get to Hell, I'll be sitting in the hot tub waiting," is a strong comment on her attitude towards religion and states the book's thematic concern. She also tell her clients, "Trust me, I'm very good at what I do." What do the two comments tell you about Cate Harlow? What passages strike you as insightful?
8. Is the ending satisfying? If so, why? If not, why not...and how would you change it?
9. If you could ask the author a question, what would you ask? Have you read other books by the same author? If so how does this book compare. If not, does this book inspire you to read others?
10. Has this novel changed you—broadened your perspective? Have you learned something new or been exposed to different ideas about people and how their religious beliefs and fears affect their lives?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Wildfire: A Novel
Mary Pauline Lowry, 2014
Skyhorse Publishing
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781629144979
Summary
Julie has an obsession with fire that began after her parents died when she was twelve years old. Her pyromania leads her to take an unlikely job as a forest firefighter on an elite, Type 1 "Hotshot" crew of forest firefighters who travel the American West battling wildfires.
The only woman on the twenty person crew, Julie struggles both to prove her worth and find a place of belonging in the dangerous, insular, and very masculine world of fire (while also fighting against an eating disorder she's had since her teens).
As her season "on the line" progresses so do her relationships with the strange and varied cast of characters that make up her hotshots team—and she learns what it means to put your life on the line for someone else.
Wildfire is a tough, gritty, and fascinating story from an exciting new voice in American fiction. Fans of the movie Backdraft or Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild will enjoy this fast paced debut.
Author Bio
• Birth—March 3, 1976
• Where—Austin, Texas, USA
• Education—B.A., Colorado College; M.A., University of Texas
• Currently—lives in Southern California
Mary Pauline Lowry worked for two years as a forest firefighter on the elite Pike Interagency Hotshot Crew based on the Pike National Forest in Colorado. "Hotshots are the best-trained and best-equipped wildland firefighters, sometimes referred to as the Navy SEALs of their profession" (Rolling Stone Magazine).
As a Hotshot, Lowry traveled all over the American West with her crew fighting wildfires ranging in size from single tree lightening strikes to 20,000 acre blazes. Hotshot crews are "hand crews" that do not use water to fight blazes. Instead they dig a firebreak or "fireline" around the fire to deprive it of fuel. With her crew, Lowry hiked or was helicoptered in to fires and dug fireline for 15 hours or more a day. During fire season, she and her crew would work 21 days at a time fighting fire and camping out.
Lowry left the Hotshot crew to attend graduate school, receiving an M.A. in English (concentration Creative Writing) from the University of Texas at Austin. Lowry has since worked in the movement to end violence against women as a counselor at a domestic violence shelter, advocate on the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and public policy analyst at the Texas Council on Family Violence.
Lowry is a native of Austin, TX, currently residing in Orange County, CA. She has written essays for the New York Times Magazine, xoJane and the Huffington Post. Her novel Wildfire (2014) is inspired by her experiences as a wildland firefighter.
Wildfire has been optioned for film by Bill Mechanic and Suzanne Warren. Lowry has written the script and the project is in development. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Wildfire will haunt readers long after they close the cover of this gripping, action-packed novel. Foreword Reviews
The Hotshots world is exotic and specialized and the entry she offers is stunning and rare. But it is the heart of this book you will most want to know. Here is an original and special voice.
Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead
Mary Lowry’s Wildfire is one of those unique books that appear from time to time, a sort of Huck Finn meets Moby Dick, that is, if Huck was a spunky young woman and the white whale was a wildfire.
Craig Nova, author of All the Dead Yale Men
Mary Lowry’s Wildfire is absolutely riveting. A vivid, evocative, and emotionally complex journey through a dangerous and beautiful world.
Lou Berney, author of Gutshot Straight and The Road to Bobby Joe and Other Stories
Lowry paints a vivid portrait of life as a hotshot.... In such scenes of true-to-life suspense and well-rendered detail, it's easy to forget this is a novel and not a work of nonfiction. Indeed, the writing is strongest where it reveals the extreme physical endurance of and deep camaraderie that forms in a hotshot crew.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In Chapter One, we meet Julie at a gas station, asking for directions to the Pike Fire Center. What was your first impression of her? How did Julie’s experience of getting lost and duped foreshadow the challenges on her rocky road to acceptance as a hotshot?
2. Written in the first person, Wildfire is Julie’s story, told from Julie’s perspective. If the novel were written in the third person, would it have made you less sympathetic towards its protagonist? Would it have changed your view of the forbidding hotshots’ world?
3. What was your emotional reaction to Julie’s memories of playing with fire at age twelve, after her parents’ death?
4. When did you realize the severity of Julie’s eating disorder? How did being afflicted with bulimia shape Julie as a character? How did it affect your feelings about her?
5. Wildfire centers on Julie’s quest for belonging. Why do you think this young woman, raised by her prim grandmother, feels "at home" on the tough male-dominated turf of wildland firefighters?
6. Do you think Julie signed on to be a hotshot simply as an act of rebellion against Frosty? Or was her motivation driven by something deeper and more complicated?
7. How would you react if your daughter, granddaughter, or niece decided to become a forest firefighter?
8. Discuss Julie’s conflicted relationship with her grandmother. Did you view Frosty as a resentful or a reluctant guardian? What was your initial reaction to Julie’s bitter recollection of Frosty comparing her to her father? How did differences in personality and temperament widen the gulf between Julie and her grandmother?
9. Throughout Wildfire, Julie battles to not only prove her strength and stamina as a rookie, but also to overcome being dismissed purely on the basis of her gender. Are men who routinely brave grave dangers on the job—whether fighting fires, crime, or enemies in combat—justified for putting more pressure on female colleagues to prove their worth?
10. In the course of the novel, another woman takes up residence at the Pike Fire Center. Discuss Julie’s reaction to sharing her female-minority status with Bliss.
11. How did winning the nut roll eating contest mark a significant turning point in Julie’s development?
12. Discuss Julie’s relationship with Sam compared to Julie’s relationship with Archie. Did you see both men as father figures for Julie? Were you surprised when one of those relationships took a romantic turn?
13. Julie feels an intimate bond with Archie after witnessing him narrowly escaping being crushed to death by a falling tree. Have you ever experienced a life-threatening disaster with an acquaintance or stranger? If so, did the experience bring you closer together?
14. Loss is a major theme in the novel. What most struck or impressed you about how Julie handled the tragic loss of Archie?
15. Wildfire captures the unique camaraderie within a hotshot crew. Do you agree with Sam’s assessment that friendship beats romantic love?
16. Wildfire has been optioned for a major motion picture, currently in development, with a script written by Mary Pauline Lowry. If you could cast the movie, who would you choose to play Julie?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Tenth of December
George Saunders, 2013
Random House
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 978081298425
Summary
One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet.
In the taut opener, "Victory Lap," a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act?
In "Home," a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned.
And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is.
A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill—the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders’s signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation.
Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 2, 1958
• Where—Amarillo, Texas, USA
• Raised—suburbs of Chicago, Illinois
• Education—B.S., Colorado School of Mines; M.A., Syracuse University
• Awards—4 National Magazine Awards; PEN/Malamud Award; World Fantasy Award; Story Prize;
Folio Prize
• Currently—teaches at Syracuse University
George Saunders is an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas and children's books. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and GQ. He also contributed a weekly column, American Psyche, to the weekend magazine of The Guardian until October 2008.
A professor at Syracuse University, Saunders won the National Magazine Award for fiction in 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2004, and second prize in the O. Henry Awards in 1997. His first story collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996), was a finalist for that year's PEN/Hemingway Award. In 2006 Saunders received a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2006 he won the World Fantasy Award for his short story "CommComm". His story collection In Persuasion Nation was a finalist for The Story Prize in 2007. In 2013, he won the PEN/Malamud Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. His Tenth of December: Stories (2013) won the 2013 Story Prize for short-story collections and the inaugural (2014) Folio Prize .
Early life
Saunders was born in Amarillo, Texas. He grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, graduating from Oak Forest High School in Oak Forest, Illinois. In 1981 Saunders received a B.S. in geophysical engineering from Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. In 1988, he obtained an M.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University.
Of his scientific background, Saunders has said,
Any claim I might make to originality in my fiction is really just the result of this odd background: basically, just me working inefficiently, with flawed tools, in a mode I don't have sufficient background to really understand. Like if you put a welder to designing dresses.
Career
From 1989 to 1996, Saunders worked as a technical writer and geophysical engineer for Radian International, an environmental engineering firm in Rochester, New York. He also worked for a time with an oil exploration crew in Sumatra.
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. In 2006, Saunders was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship. In the same year he was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He was a Visiting Writer at Wesleyan University and Hope College in 2010. His nonfiction collection, The Braindead Megaphone, was published in 2007. While promoting The Braindead Megaphone, Saunders appeared on The Colbert Report and the Late Show with David Letterman.[citation needed]
Saunders's fiction often focuses on the absurdity of consumerism, corporate culture and the role of mass media. While many reviewers mention the satirical tone in Saunders's writing, his work also raises moral and philosophical questions. The tragicomic element in his writing has earned Saunders comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut, whose work inspired Saunders.
Saunders is a student of Nyingma Buddhism. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/27/14.)
Book Reviews
National Book Award finalist • a New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year; One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Magazine • NPR • People • Entertainment Weekly • New York • BuzzFeed • Kirkus Reviews • BookPage • Shelf Awareness
A visceral and moving act of storytelling.... No one writes more powerfully than George Saunders about the lost, the unlucky, the disenfranchised.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
It’s no exaggeration to say that short story master George Saunders helped change the trajectory of American fiction.
Wall Street Journal
Saunders captures the fragmented rhythms, disjointed sensory input, and wildly absurd realities of the twenty-first century experience like no other writer.
Boston Globe
Saunders’s startling, dreamlike stories leave you feeling newly awakened to the world.
People
An irresistible mix of humor and humanity...that will make you beam with unmitigated glee.
Entertainment Weekly
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)