Used Book in Good Condition</br></br>Product Description</br></br><b>From the #1?<i>New York Times</i>?bestselling?author of the novel?<b><i>Lincoln in the Bardo</i>?and the story collection?</b><i>Tenth of December</i>?? a 2013 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction.</b><br><br> Hailed by Thomas Pynchon as "raceful?? dark?? authentic?? and funny??"rge Saunders now surpasses his <i>New York Times </i>Notable Book?? <i>CivilWarLand in Bad Decline</i>?? with this bestselling collection of stories set against a warped?? hilarious?? and terrifyingly recognizable American landscape.<p>One of <i>Entertainment Weekly</i>??s Ten Best Books of the Year<br><br> "l and sophisicated... truly unusual. Imagine Lewis's Babbitt thrown into the backseat of a car going cross-country?? driven by R. Crumb?? Matt Groening?? Lynda Barry?? Harvey Pekar?? or Spike Jonze."i>The New York Times</i><br><br> "Saunders is a provocateur?? a moralist?? a zealot?? a lefty?? and a funny?? funny writer?? and the stories in <i>Pastoralia </i>delight. We're very luck to have them.">Esquire</i></p></br></br>Amazon.com Review</br></br>In both his acclaimed debut?? <I>CivilWarLand " Bad Decline</I>?? and his second collection?? <I>Pastoralia</I>?? George Saunders imagines a near future where capitalism has run amok. Consumption and the service economy rule the earth. The Haves are grotesque beings?? mutilated by their crass desires and impossible wealth. The Have Nots are no less crippled?? both emotionally and physically?? by their inferior status. It's a kind of <I>Westworld</I> scenario?? but instead of robots?? the serving wenches?? bellboys?? and extras are real people?? all of them mercilessly indentured by the free market.<p>  Sounds like bleak stuff?? doesn't it? Yet Saunders handles his characters with grace and humor. In the title story?? for example?? a couple occupies a squalid corner of a human zoo?? where they act out a parody of caveman times?? communicating in grunts and hand motions (speaking is instantly punishable by the Orwellian management) and conducting their lives during 15-minute smoke breaks. In "oser (really?? all of Saunders's characters are born losers) visits a self-help seminar?? where he's encouraged to rid himself of all those people who are "apping in your oatmeal." Exhilarated at the prospect of dumping his simple?? crazy-haired?? religion-besotted sister?? he returns home to the bleak discovery that he needs her as much as she needs him. The protagonist of " Oak" works as a stripper in an aviation-themed restaurant and lives next