№ 01
“The short story lives on the appearance, on the local scale, of those parts of the human experience that, writ large, make what we call "history."” source
Author and creative-writing professor
George Saunders
George Saunders is a short-story writer and novelist who won the Booker Prize for Lincoln in the Bardo and has taught at Syracuse for decades. He writes on craft in A Swim in a Pond in the Rain and his Substack newsletter Story Club. Picks below come from his craft book and interviews.
27
Recommendations
2022
Most recent list
Literary Fiction
Most-recommended
On the record
All George Saunders book recommendations.
№ 02
“A gifted writer can help us work down through layers of specificity, from "item on the news" or "current political issue" to "actual human being, about whom I find myself caring."” source
№ 03
“This one speaks a grave and simple truth about capitalism: that it can crush dear people and force upon them lives that are less graceful and full of love than these lives might have been.” source
№ 04
“Good fiction reminds us that how we say something is not separable from what it is we are trying to say.” source
№ 05
“This is one of the most genuinely surprising stories I've ever read (and I won't spoil it with details).” source
№ 06
“The stories in Afterparties, powered by So's skill with the telling detail, are like beams of wry, affectionate light, falling from different directions on a complicated, struggling, beloved American community.” source
№ 07
“Morrison models that capability here in this great novel, and reminds us that the first move in any assessment of a person or notion should be sympathy, based on the reality of our grand mutual suffering.” source
№ 08
“The motion is that the reader rather too easily dismisses a character, and aligns with the writer in looking down at the character, only to be outed at the end.” source
№ 09
“Should be required reading for any white person in America who has felt that familiar combination of heart-sickness and passivity when thinking about race.” source
№ 10
“This book shot a lightning-bolt of understanding into my mind regarding the role of social media in the terrible political division racking our country.” source
№ 11
“Language is power, and Olsen does a masterful and compassionate job here of showing who has been denied language in America.” source
№ 12
“This story, and the author's heartful understanding of it, has been deeply informing my views on class and addiction in America for thirty years.” source
№ 13
“I turn to Babel for reassurance that literature is capable of showing the real and terrifying mayhem that results when national systems collapse.” source
№ 14
“Read this memoir for a glimpse of a vanished country (ours, circa 1940s/1950s/1960s) that had an entirely different notion of education and the arts.” source
№ 15
“Her funny, fond, wild energy produced stunningly beautiful stories, poems, and essays, and a lifetime of passionate social engagement.” source
№ 16
“Herr, who recently passed away, was one of the great prose stylists of the twentieth-century.” source
№ 17
“This book shows us a much-worse time and its tragic effects on a group of tender friends/lovers/artists.” source
№ 18
“I sometimes think that I can't do the bigger thing that you do so beautifully, as in Swing Time, with so much world in it and so much rapturous paint thrown around.” source
№ 19
“That was the first time contemporary literature was in full color for me.” source
№ 20
“I was amazed by the research and how he folded it into his novelistic storytelling.” source
№ 21
“A brilliant survey of Civil War literature.” source
№ 22
“Like a master novelist Figes keeps moving to different sides of the story.” source
№ 23
“About how a young person who isn't from an artistic background finds art. That speaks to me.” source
№ 24
“A beautiful little novel about his older brother who died as a child.” source
№ 25
“Tobias Wolff's first collection of stories is near to my heart, since it convinced me to come to Syracuse and study with him, which turned out to be one of the great blessings of my life.” source
№ 26
“Denis Johnson's story collection Jesus' Son could win the Super Bowl any day of the week.” source
№ 27
“There's a discrepancy between what a great writer he is and how many people know this. He is one of the funniest, sharpest, edgiest writers in America.” source
Readers with overlapping taste
