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George Saunders Comes Home to Talk About His New Book ‘Vigil’: ‘I Could Never Not Be a South Side of Chicago Guy’
Saunders’ novel uses spectral figures to critique climate change denial and petrocapitalism, yet critics find its moral and political messages vague and underdeveloped.
- The Conversation's reviewer judged George Saunders's Vigil inadequate, comparing it unfavorably to Pynchonesque work despite Saunders's Booker Prize and endorsements from Thomas Pynchon, Zadie Smith, Margaret Atwood, and Barack Obama.
- Vigil's narrator Jill "Doll" Blaine consoles dying souls in purgatory and is assigned to K.J. Boone, a comatose oil baron whose unrepentant devotion raises themes of petrocapitalism and climate catastrophe.
- A remorseful Frenchman conjures apparitions to force Boone to atone, but Boone resists while Jill sacrifices impartiality to defeat the two 'Mels' and unexpectedly saves his soul.
- Stylistic criticisms focus on heavy-handed dialogue and vertigo-inducing narration, with reviewers saying Boone's underdeveloped backstory pales beside Pynchon's narrative techniques.
- In the context of rising corporate harms, the reviewer argued Vigil shies away from elaborating its political arguments, making its commentary on petrocapitalism and climate debate feel dated and hollow.
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12 Articles
12 Articles
A knock-off Pynchon without the punchline: George Saunders’ Vigil falls flat
From Thomas Pynchon, Zadie Smith and Margaret Atwood to Barack Obama and the editors of Time magazine, it seems everyone who is anyone is lining up to sing the praises of George Saunders. Saunders is the author of Booker Prize winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), a ghost story about the grief of Abraham Lincoln after losing his son, whose undead spirit becomes restless. The success of that novel has somewhat overshadowed the longer career …
Coverage Details
Total News Sources12
Leaning Left10Leaning Right0Center2Last UpdatedBias Distribution83% Left
Bias Distribution
- 83% of the sources lean Left
83% Left
L 83%
C 17%
Factuality
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