Brad Carrigan, American by George Saunders, 2005
The magic trick:
Absurdist comedy that ends in pathos
In a lot of ways, this is peak Saunders silliness. We’ve got goofy language, crazy characters, pop culture satire, deranged reality. It’s funny. It’s scary. It’s searing.
And that’s all impressive.
No one does it better.
But you may be surprised when in the story’s closing section you start to feel something. You ache for Brad, who himself is aching.
I feel like it’s the difference between The Simpsons and Family Guy. Both excellent, funny satire. But only The Simpsons delivers that satire with heart.
And that’s quite a trick on Saunders’s part.
The selection:
“Wow,” says Brad. “That’s so complicated.”
“Not that complicated,” says the corpse who died fending off blows.
“It might seem complicated, if the person trying to understand it had lived in total plenty all his life, ignoring the rest of the world,” says the corpse missing an arm, as a butterfly flits from his chest wound to his head wound.
“I agree,” says the corpse who died fending off blows. “We know all about his country. I know who Casey Stengel was. I can quote at length from Thomas Paine.”
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I’m a big fan of George Saunders. In a short story, he can deliver silliness, absurdity, and tug at my emotions.