A New George Saunders Story in The New Yorker Is Cause for Celebration

Looking for something to read? George Saunders, hilarious/wonderful short story writer and personal hero of mine, has a new piece in this week’s New Yorker, and it’s available online. It’s called “Escape From Spiderhead,” and I’m legit annoyed that I have to work and can’t read it right now.

But yes—this “why so dark?” question comes up a lot, both inside and outside of my head, and, when it does, I always have two opposing impulses. One is: “I know, I know, I’m so sorry, I’ll try to do better, I really do enjoy living!” The other is: “Well, wait a minute, what do you mean by ‘dark’? anyway? What makes this story ’dark’? I don’t find it ’dark’ at all. Jon chose love! Jeff chose to not kill! You want darkness? Watch TV! Like ‘C.S.I.’! Read ‘Little Red Riding Hood!’ Chick makes one mistake, gets eaten by a wolf! And she’s a kid! Or how about the Bible? Plagues of locusts, and then the nicest guy in the world gets crucified? Are you kidding me?”

He also has an interview online that ties in with the story, and it contains many gems from the man himself. An example:

A New George Saunders Story in The New Yorker Is Cause […]