Victory Lap by George Saunders

I recently picked up George Saunders' new short story collection, "Tenth of December". I was so impressed by his story "Sea Oak" that I decided to check his most recent collection of stories. If you've never read "Sea Oak" you should. It's awesome.

The first story in Saunders' new book is "Victory Lap", a story told from three different perspectives. "Victory Lap" is obviously a story written by the Saunders. The language, sense of humor, and general style is unmistakably Saunders. I was immediately drawn in by Saunders' vocabulary and fascinating characters. While both "Victory Lap" and "Sea Oak" feature third person narration, "Victory Lap" has much more interiority with its characters. The voice of the story feels like it comes directly from the mind of its characters. Saunders does this convincingly making each character's segment feel unique with all kinds of different details bubbling beneath the surface alluding to each character's past. Ok, that's enough about fancy stylistic stuff.

"Victory Lap" is a crazy story. The characters are hilarious and fascinating but it doesn't feel like anythings really happening until wham! One of the characters Allison is kidnapped by some guy named Melvin and taken into his van to be raped and killed.  Its a weird gut punch in the middle of a story that doesn't feel like it should involve rape, murder, or kidnapping. The story does end on a happy note though (happy for me at least).

As much as this story weirded me out and made me feel like I barely understood its three characters, I still enjoyed reading it. Saunders keeps things interesting and proves that he knows how to make readers unsure whether they should be laughing or crying.

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