Bits and Pieces of Good Writing: George Saunders
The story is “Mother’s Day,” in The New Yorker, Feb. 8 and 15, 2016, p. 84-92. It’s a funny story, lots of great humor, but—as with all quality humorous writing—the fiction is anchored in the serious.
“Sweeping like a banshee in front
of that same tiny former carriage house she’d lived in since she was a girl.
With her oddball parents. Mandy and Randy. Both had limps. Different limps.
When they walked down the street it was like a freaking dance party.”
Note what some might consider
offensive writing here. Let them. If you want to write good fiction do not
concern yourself with political correctness. Good fiction describes Life, and
Life has no truck with political correctness. Is it sin to laugh at a descriptions of limping people? No. Go ahead and laugh. God will absolve you of your sins.
[appearing at the pearly gates]: “she didn’t exactly love the idea
of showing up at the pearly gates or whatnot and having St. Whoever look her up
in his book and go, Whoa, hey, I was just sitting here tabulating the number of
guys you had in your life, and, yikes, can you wait here a second while I go
check with God on what the limit is?”
[caught in a hailstorm]: “The
hail-thingies bouncing off Debi’s black umbrella looked like sweat flying off a
cartoon-guy’s head when he was supposed to be worried. Paul, Sr., had once
shown her a porn like that. A cartoon porn. The one Paulie later found. Guy so
worried, watching his wife have at it with a big sailor…”
[heart attack]: “Alma got hold of
a fence slat. To pull—pull herself out. Of this. Pain. Something new was
happening now. The tightness in her chest was worse. Jesus. Like labor with
Paulie. Then it went past that, to labor with Pammy, and she was giving birth
to something bigger than Pammy, out her chest.”
Funny, the best story I ever read
by George Saunders was also in “The New Yorker,” years ago. It was about a man
caught up in a bank robbery. Don’t remember the title. As I recall it, the man
in the bank kept making jokes, and the bank robbers did not take kindly to
that. Can’t recall what else happened, but it sure was a dang good story!
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