Al Roosten

Getting back to some George Saunders stories here.

Summary

This story feels like a roller coaster of contradictory thoughts. The constant banter of Roosten's inner thoughts makes it difficult to follow the story, but I am going to give it a shot. Roosten is the owner of a store called Bygone Daze, a shop that sells vintage collectibles. Roosten is volunterring in a strange charity event called LaffKidsOffCrack. Along with Larry Donfrey, Roosten is going to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Roosten and Donfrey both saunter down a runway, presumably to increase their chances of being bid on. After Roosten does his runway walk, he walks to the "cardboard jail" where he has "his own barred window". Once this bizarre spectacle is over, Roosten retires to the changing area where, in a fit of jealous anger, he kicks Donfrey's keys and wallet underneath a "stack of risers."
Roosten drives "through the town where he'd lived his whole life" while his mom talks to him from heaven. Roosten feels guilty about Donfrey's keys so he envisions an alternate timeline where he goes back to the event and helps Donfrey find his keys and wallet. He even envisions himself eating dinner with the entire Donfrey clan. None of this is actually happening.
Roosten reaches his shop across the street from a junkyard where "hoboes hung out." Roosten imagines himself beating up a homeless man with "ghoulish" teeth and red eyes. Roosten frames this as a valuable lesson for the homeless man. Instead Roosten and the homeless man exchange weak smiles and go on their ways.

Analysis

The narrator of this story cycles between a third person detached POV and direct access to Al Roosten's real thoughts. I would argue that the focus of the story is the distinct voice representing Roosten's inner thoughts. The voice is contradictory. It goes from one thought to the exact opposite immediately. I would characterize it as neurotic and possibly unstable. Roosten typically envisions himself performing outrageous feats but his real-life behaviour is contained and measured. The frankness of the third-person narrator brings the reader closer to Roosten, making him a more sympathetic character. There's a tension between Saunders's view of Roosten as disgusting and the narrator's desire to make Roosten seem pitiful and sweetly stupid.

Donfrey acts as an interesting foil to Roosten. Donfrey is much more successful and handsome than Roosten and Roosten even admits that Donfrey is a "good guy". The narrator remarks that Donfrey and Roosten are "twin pillars of the local business community," yet appears to have a much better life. Donfrey is simply and upgraded version of Roosten in every way.

The voice of Roosten's mother is an interesting aspect of this story. It's telling that the dead mother is still speaking so coherently and frequently in Roosten's head. We can add hearing voices to the list of Roosten's issues. The mother is giving and realistic. She tells Roosten that his "moral courage" is his most important trait.

I am surprised at how much there is to examine in this story. On the first reading, it was hard to track the story's plot while following the crazy statements of Roosten's inner thoughts. Once I became comfortable with this structure, it became easier to find the meaning in this story. It will be fun to revisit this story and find even more insane ways that Saunders creates meaning. There's a lot to chew on in Roosten's thoughts and in the story's unique setting. 

An illustration of Al Roosten and Larry Donfrey from the New Yorker.

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George Saunders on Process

In a piece titled “On Process”, George Saunders discusses several interesting ideas about fiction. Saunders starts his process by looking at a single sentence and repeating it until a next step appears. Ideally the next step should come should come unwilled. Saunders hopes that the forward movement of his stories feels natural, instantaneous, and unstoppable. However the mechanism of this process is mysterious. Where do narrative impulses come from and can their quality improve? Saunders cares deeply about the quality of his writing, as most fiction writers do, so it behooves him to understand process as much as possible.

An enabling characteristic of Saunders’ mentality is zero investment in the writing. Saunders wants to feels like he is reading a piece for the first time. Saunders cares not about the piece’s success or quality and focuses only on the story’s natural energy divorced from any thematic aspirations. Saunders wants to keep it interesting and believes that the most interesting connections come from the mind of someone with zero previous experience with a given story.

The other critical idea for Saunders is iteration, or repeating the process over and over until a story becomes its own unique thing. On a given day, Saunders averages about three readings, each followed by integrating changes into the text and generating a new printout. Yet Saunders runs into trouble when he says, “the result will be more like you, the writer, than even you, the ‘person’ is.” It’s difficult to pinpoint what Saunders means by this.  He obviously supports the iterative process, but how does making something more like the writer than the person improve quality? To clarify, I think Saunders wants to keep his “real self” out of his writing because deep down, he considers himself a boring person.

So what is the point of fiction? Why go through the trouble of Saunders’ intensive writing process? Well have no fear because Saunders is here to give us the answer:

“Most of us, at a certain point in our lives, come to understand that we are here to grow. To grow in love, patience, gentleness; to become more able to deal with the harshness and victories of life with aplomb and generosity. But how to do it? Art can be a way of training ourselves in these virtues – not in a holy or precious or dogmatic way, but in the same way that a crazy night on the town, or a catastrophic love affair, or a close brush with death, can train us. Reality says: here I am. Likewise in a story, the truth says: here I am, albeit in a strange garb.

Here is what I think Saunders is getting at. To grow in virtue, people need “reality” checks. Normally people get this from formative experiences but fiction can also provide it. Fiction should mirror reality. The work should be an accurate encapsulation of a realistic situation. If something is an accurate depiction of reality, it is more likely to resonate

Ok, that is enough for now. I want to stop before I jump to any more conclusions about what George Saunders may or may not be trying to say. You can find the piece on the Kenyon Review website.

George Saunders - The Wavemaker Falters

The narrator of Saunders' "The Wavemaker Falters" works at an amusement park where he operates the wavemaker, a machine titled for its function. It's a strange setting to say the least and the narrator's description of his surroundings makes this clear: "The Night crew's hard at work applying a range of commercial chemicals and cleaning hair balls from the filter. Some exiting guests are brawling in the traffic jam on the access road. Through a federal program we offer discount coupons to the needy, so sometimes our clientele is borderline." Saunders' unique voice is present throughout the story. He has a way of describing things that feels playful but also quite discerning. The narrator sees a great deal in a relatively short period of time, and most of what he sees is generally unpleasant. What kind of place has chemicals, hairballs, and people fighting in the same location? It's hard not to laugh at Saunders' humorously depressing descriptions of setting.
The defining moment of the narrator's life is when a young boy dies in the wavemaker while the narrator stares at members of an all-girl's glee club; a traumatic moment that causes much guilt for the narrator. Guilt is definitely a key word in the story. Much of the narrator's frustration derives from the inadequacy he feels compared to his boss Leon who might be even stranger than the narrator: "On the wall of his office he's got a picture of himself Jell-O-wrestling a traveling celebrity Jell-O-wrestler. That's pure Leon." This about sums up the eccentricity of the story. Our first glimpse into Leon's character is through the image of him Jello-O-wrestling (whatever that looks like). The narrator feels that this picture represents Leon perfectly, but how can this sort of image convey Leon's personality? Is he an the ostentatious type who enjoys showing off his crazy adventures? I choose to believe that the narrator is strange for thinking he understands Leon because of this picture.

A typical Jell-O mold.

Because of his guilt, the narrator visits a therapist who makes him repeat the phrase: "A boy is dead because of me" got half an hour for fifty dollars. The narrator needs to quantify this experience, showing possible resentment for his therapist's motivations. The narrator is visited most nights by the ghost of the boy he killed who brings interesting conversation topics with him: "One night he showed up swearing in Latin. Another time with a wild story about an ancient African culture that used radio waves to relay tribal myths." How about that? The complete ridiculousness of the situation is made even more bizarre by Saunders inclusion of these details. Saunders heaps weirdness onto more weirdness, creating a stew of bizarre scenarios. Thankfully these scenes combine to form a coherent narrative.

At the core the story is quite tragic as the narrator's life seems be spiraling downward.  Towards the end the narrator discovers his wife's affair with Leon and can't muster up the courage to confront them in the act. When he brings up the topic with his wife at home, she doesn't even deny the fact. She tells the narrator bluntly that the affair is going to continue. The narrator hits rock bottom when the father of the child he killed calls to say that he's going to kill him: "I don't hate you, he says, But I can't have you living on the earth while my son isn't." Curiously, at the exact moment of his impending death, the child's father disappears out the front door. The narrator leaves his house and wanders to a graveyard where he reflects on past events. Fully aware that his life is going nowhere, the narrator says, "this is as low as I go." A somewhat hopeful ending for a story dominated by hilariously tragic circumstances. Frankly, I can't imagine how this narrator will discover any satisfaction in his life, yet this abrupt shift in tone leaves a sense that things can only get better.

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Semplica Girl Diaries Reaction

Saunders' The Semplica Girl Diaries deals with a father's struggle to make his family happy. He feels the pressure of "limitations" that result from his lack of money and privilege. Attending the birthday party of his daughter's friend makes him depressed because of the extreme wealth on display at the other family's home. It's all relative in this story. The father feels his own middle to lower-class lifestyle is lacking in relation to the lifestyle of a much wealthier family. Lily, the narrator's youngest daughter, feels this the most. Lily seems ingrained to think that not having a disposable income means your life is deficient and not worth living. Why does she feel this way? Saunders thinks that society is responsible for glamorizing wealth and making people always aware of how others perceive them. More than anything else, money reminds us of who we are.

I found this story more engaging than most of the other Saunders' stories. Coming in at sixty pages, The Semplica Girl Diaries is more novella than short fiction. The narrator's voice was immediately engaging for me. Some of Saunders' other stories feel like they're coming straight from the mind of a psychopath. This story did not feel like this. The voice is clear and deliberate. The story is told in the form of journal entries that the father has jotted down before going to bed. He hopes to preserve his experiences for future readers. From what I can tell, the father is down to earth family man whose main wish is to make his family happy. When he wins ten grand on a scratch ticket, he decides to invest this money into his yard, buying a pond, hot tub, flowers, and three girls from Asia and Africa tied together by a microline inserted into their heads. In this fictional world, buying live humans a yard ornaments is the latest trend. The semplica girl element elevates this story to sci-fi and adds some horror to the mix. It's unsettling how comfortable the narrator is with using other human beings as decorations on his lawn.

One note on craft. I enjoyed Saunders' prose style in this story. He omits the use of "to be" verbs and words like "the" and "a". The result is a more minimalist story that makes it feel more like reading someone's journal. It's a very personal story that divulges the narrator's emotional and intellectual activities often. Another thing I appreciate about the journal format is the use of dates to separate the story into consumable chunks.

This story made me think about how identity is formed by other's perceptions. Especially in American culture, one's life is judged in relation to the lives of others. This is a sad truth that can invade your mind consume your activity. It can turn your life into a struggle to create meaningless status. This is the message I extracted from this story.

Puppy

"Puppy" by George Saunders alternates between the perspectives of two women, Marie and Callie. It's a simple story structure. The story's divided into four equal sized portions. Marie and Callie both get two. I guess each of these portions can be called a vignette. Saunders provides one informative scene from each woman's life before allowing the women to interact.

Each scene is told in the third person and feels like its coming from the character's mind. The first scene focuses on Marie, a mother of two children who has some problems but still lives a pretty good life. Her son Josh is prone to violent outburst but has mellowed out since playing a video game called Italian Loaves. This game simulates the life of a baker who must prepare his bread while avoiding the onslaught of animals such as wolves with distended stomachs and birds that drop rocks. Josh plays this game nonstop and it has mellowed him out. Marie is in control of her life and appears to be happy. The context of her life is strange but things seem to be going okay for her family. Marie has a fascination with bringing home strange things which is what leads her to contact Callie to purchase her dog.

Like Marie, Callie is a mother of a strange child. Callie's son has a habit of darting between cars on the interstate. Callie fears for her son's safety so she makes his take medication, but it makes him grind his teeth and lose control of his body. Like Marie, Callie has a plethora of problems but she is tough and appears to be relatively happy.

Callie and Marie are similar but have different lifestyles. Marie loves bringing home new animals to surprise her husband while Callie has too many animals.

Consequently, Callie's husband feels a need to kill the various animals because he grew up on a farm and understands the reality that the best way to get rid of animals is to kill them. This is what motivates Callie to post an ad in the paper to sell her dog ergo her husband won't have to kill it. For Callie, a lot depends on whether or not Marie buys her dog. 

So Marie arrives at Callie's house and intends to purchase the dog. Everything is going smoothly until Marie looks out the window and sees Bo, Callie's son, chained to a tree. It's the funniest moment of the story. After seeing this boy chained to a tree, Marie assumes that this is child abuse. She flashbacks to her own painful upbringing and changes her mind about buying the dog. Little does she know that this boy is chained up for his own good. Its possible that this chain is keeping the boy alive but Marie sees it in a different light.

Both women love their children but experience love in a different way. Marie can manipulate her son's behavior by getting him a video game but Callie's situation is more difficult. Bo is a danger to himself when given free roam outdoors but hates being kept indoors. Callie's solution is to chain him to a tree. This is how love exists in Callie's world. Loving those around you for who they are and trying to make them realize their full potential. I believe this is the ultimate message of Saunders' "Puppy". 

Random boy chained to a tree.

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Related Posts:

• Al Roosten
• The Wavemaker Falters
• Victory Lap
• George Saunders on Process
• The 400-Pound CEO

"Sticks"

My second post is about the story "Sticks" the second story in Saunders' Tenth of December. This story is less than two pages long making it the shortest story in the collection by far. The story centers on the narrator's father who erects a metal cross in his family's front yard and decorates the cross in strange ways. At first, the father decorates the cross to fit different holidays. By the end, he strings sticks to the cross and hangs all kinds of weird things from the six strings. These sticks give the story its title and represent six offspring, leading me to conclude that the each stick represents a child and the large metal cross represents the father.

It's a weird premise for a story but Saunders makes it interesting. With no explanation for why the father builds the crucifix, I was left to assume that the father is an eccentric, the kind of person who does weird things because it makes him happy. The story reveals that the father is somewhat of a helicopter parent who limits how much ketchup his children eat and shrieks at one of his children for wasting an apple slice. What a freak.

I can't help but wonder where Saunders got his inspiration for this story. Why did he choose to write a story about this weird father who obsesses over a crucifix in his yard? It reminds me a little of my own father who gets a kick out of wearing weird clothes and being eccentric because it shocks other people. I got the impression that my own father is similar to the father in "Sticks". While the father does weird stuff, it seems like its always in the interest of his children. In only two pages, Saunders gave me a character who reminds me of my own father. I feel like I know this character on a personal level even though I don't know much about him. This story was enjoyable in spite of its short length which made it easy to re-read. I probably read it at least eight times. 

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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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