SEA OAK by George Saunders
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The characters in these absurdly funny stories are trapped by hyper-capitalism and their own foolishness, as Saunders investigates the prisons we make for ourselves
Some writers work within a tradition, and some create a world from whole cloth. There aren’t many who can do the whole-cloth bit, but George is one of them. Within the universe of American writing, there really is a continent called GeorgeSaunders-Land, where the people speak funny, and the social contract has either broken down or been bent out of all recognition, and our most intimate lives feel like reenactments of something we maybe saw on TV. If he were just a vicious satirist, he would still be hugely enjoyable, but what sets him apart is his willingness not only to go into the heart of darkness but to suggest possible routes out. The cool kids don’t dare do that, but George always has, and without sanctimony or even a hint of righteousness. I once heard him describe satire as “the inverse praise of good things.” Seen from this perspective, George’s career has been a 20-year praise-song to the power of language, the grandeur of the visible world, and the awesome possibility of genuine enlightenment. That we can even see this through the parade of holy fools, venal idiots, smiling demagogues, degraded environments, and twisted corporate spaces he has presented us over the years is a testament to his extraordinary skill.
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| George Saunders |
Interview
The Lincoln in the Bardo author is back with another metaphysical tale. He discusses Buddhism, partisan politics and the terrifying flight that changed his life
The ghosts of Lincoln in the Bardo return to confront a dying oil man’s destructive legacy – but this time they feel like a gimmick
Random House announced today that a brand new novel by George Saunders will be landing on bookshelves this winter, on January 27, 2026. Vigil takes “place at the bedside of an oil company CEO, in the twilight hours of his life, as he is ferried from this world into the next.” (After Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders is cornering the post-death literature market, it seems.)
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| George Saunder |
This week the American writer George Saunders, celebrated for his short stories, won the Man Booker prize with his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. He talks about brevity, empathy and how he sees writing as a form of activism
Paula Cocozza
Wednesday 18 October 2017
George Saunders won the Man Booker prize on Tuesday night, but while he was working on Lincoln in the Bardo, his winning book, he would sometimes stop and ask himself if it really was a novel he was writing. He still sounds a little unsure. “I still, I still … I mean, it says it is!” he says, pointing to the dustjacket; US tradition dictates that a novel is specified as such on its cover.
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| George Saunders by Damon Winter |
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| Maya Angelou |
She lived a sensational life – but it was her assumption of her equality that made Maya Angelou radical, as I rediscovered when turning I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings into radio drama
Patricia Cumper
Wed 13 jun 2018
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| Maya Angelou |
“Whitney, who’s your person?” I clenched my hands together under the desk. It was my turn to report which author I hoped to interview for professor Carolyn Hembree’s assignment. I knew I had picked a long shot, but I had to believe.
Politics and war, science and sports, memoir and biography — there's a great big world of nonfiction books out there just waiting to be read. We picked the 100 best and most influential written in English since 1923, the beginning of TIME ... magazine
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| Diana Rigg |
All About My Mother by Rachael Stirling review – a joyous love letter to Diana Rigg
Beautifully written by her daughter, this is a funny and intimate eulogy to the 60s star of The Avengers who went on to specialise in fierce, complicated women
Stories are predicated on journeys of all kinds, and sometimes, destinations. For the displaced, however, a homecoming is a perpetual state of grief. A relentless wandering of memory with dreams of reuniting with family or perhaps a yearning to return to a land, or for the kindness and grace of a helping hand. How, then, does one find connection or a spark of joy in such challenging times?
When Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ memoir The Flower Bearers (Random House, 2026) begins in September 2021, unease underlies the joyfulness of a wedding celebration. While Griffiths delights in having her hands decorated with henna and staying up chatting with her sister the night before her wedding to fellow writer Salman Rushdie, her closest friend and chosen sister, poet Kalimah Aisha Moon, has not arrived to participate in the festivities. It isn’t until after the ceremony that Griffiths learns that Moon suddenly died, and the discovery sends her spiraling into grief. Eleven months later, as she pieces together her life as a newlywed without her friend’s presence, an attack nearly kills Rushdie. During an appearance in Chautauqua, New York, the renowned writer sustained stab wounds to his face, neck, and torso, resulting in partial blindness and nerve damage.
After the writer was stabbed in a horrific attack, his wife started making a video diary of his recovery. The clips are featured in a new film from Alex Gibney, who drew on Dennis Potter to create a powerful portrait of Rushdie’s tumultuous life
Salman Rushdie and Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe
‘Ours was a love story, not an attempted murder story’: Rachel Eliza Griffiths on the day her husband, Salman Rushdie, was stabbed
They had only been married for 11 months when the world-famous novelist was attacked by a frenzied knifeman. His wife remembers the intense drama of hearing the news, and the traumatic aftermath
Iwoke early and alone on the sunny morning of Friday 12 August 2022. I was having coffee at the moment my husband, the Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, was nearly killed in a stabbing on stage in Chautauqua, New York.
While the author’s account of the 2022 murder attempt is a courageous defence of free speech, it is also shot through with self-regard, making it a sometimes hard book to admire
