The Mom Of Bold Action by George Saunders, 2021
The magic trick:
A conflict that only seems to worsen with resolution
We’ve got a weekend double for you of stories from George Saunders’s 2022 collection Liberation Day. Truth be told, not my favorite Saunders collection, but they can’t all be the best, can they? And there some seriously great stories in the mix.
“The Mom Of Bold Action” is classic Saunders interior monologue. We’re trapped in her head for all 22 pages, and it’s a wild ride of stops and starts and starts and stops. She’s trying to write a story in her kitchen, while navigating the pitfalls of parenting and family life.
The story creates an interestingly contradictory set of values. Clearly, the protagonist is struggling with indecision. She’s self-editing her writing attempts into almost-immediate collapse. And she’s seeing so many different sides to the problems in her real life that she struggles to know what to do.
The story’s plot takes this conundrum to the next level, though. When she and her family do make bold decisions and take direct action, well… things don’t go so well. It’s a story whose conflict only gets worse with resolution.
And that’s quite a trick on Saunders’s part.
The selection:
At least we didn’t put the wrong person in jail, Derek said in the car on the way home.
Long silence.
Well, yes and no, she felt. One of them had done it. Pushed Derek down. Had actually done it. Stepped up, pushed him down. Then sandal-flapped away, all pleased with himself. That had, for sure, happened in this world. Put both in the slammer, you’d be fifty per cent right. Now? One hundred per cent wrong. And who was suffering? Her little guy. Who was not suffering? Whichever one of them had done it. He was out there right now, bopping around town, crazy thoughts ramped up by this little victory, proof (to him) that his world view was, like, visionary or some such shit.
Unbelievable.
Damn.
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