Rent In Persuasion Nation

Synopsis

Zany postmodern fiction, like conceptual art, runs the risk of being interesting only because of the originality of its premise. A writer might pen the only existing short-story about a polar bear that gets axed in the head as an advertisement for Cheetos, but if two hundred writers suddenly used the same idea, would the first story still be the best? As any good comedian can attest, premise is important, but execution is king. George Saunders has become one of the few modern authors who not only serves up deliciously inventive concepts, but makes them so stylish, finely wrought, and brutally observed that he need not fear imitators (of which there are many). For example, in Saunders's third short-story collection, IN PERSUASION NATION, he tells the tale of a disconsolate polar bear trapped in a daily routine of breaking into an igloo to steal Cheetos and being axed in the head by an Eskimo, and not only is it the only story about a polar bear being axed, but it is the best possible story about a polar bear getting axed. With an impeccable ear for the cadence of language, and an inimitable sense of comic timing and tragic sentiment, Saunders raises satire of our surreal mediated world to swooning existential heights. IN PERSUASIAN NATION is so funny it hurts, so accurate that it stings.

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