Why George Saunders is an excellent writer

George Saunders's story Puppy (?) in his new collection Tenth of December is similar to the first in the collection,Victory Lap, in that it's not especially strange in regard to plot - in fact the plot is very simple - a family with 2 kids heads off the country to pick up a dog they'd seen advertised - and when they get there they find that the family with the dog is extremely crude, "white trash," I think the mom calls them - and then the mom witnesses the mistreatment of a disabled child (kept chained to a pole in the backyard) and therefore they decide they don't want this dog - as if it will bring a taint to their household. They leave, and the country mom takes the dog out to a cornfield and abandons it - an act of both cruelty and in a weird way, tenderness, as she does not want to make her husband shoot the dog. Stop for a moment now and ponder the ways most writers would handle this material: sentimental maybe, ironic, gothic, ending dramatically, or with a subtle image - many different ways no doubt but all within the orbit of realism - the story has all the potential for establishing scene and developing character - but Saunders handles it in a way that no other writer (except maybe Kafka?) would or could: alternates between the point of view of the two moms, each suffering in her way, each odd and thinking her odd behavior is normal. Example the mom seeking the dog talks about her fondness for her husband who, whenever a new concept, such as a pet, is introduced into the family life, says Ho-HO, which becomes a kind of spooky refrain throughout the story. So we see this little anecdote not as an example of social realism or family dynamics but as an exploration of theinner core of character: his stories are revelations of self-consciousness, our internal monologues, strange as they are and uncensored, spilling out into prose. Part of the greatness of fiction is giving us access to the consciousness of the consciousness of another; another part is giving us access to an author's unique style, vision, or world view. Saunders's stories do both. This story and Victory Lap are a bit unusual for Saunders in that they verge on the sentimental and optimistic; Escape from Spiderhead, a much longer story in this collection, is more typical of his work, dark strange and disconcerting. Intend to discuss in tomorrow's post.