Book Review: CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
Saunders’ debut collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996), is not as masterful or charged with emotion as his later works like Tenth of December or Lincoln in the Bardo. However, it was great to recognize the seeds of the author’s future prowess in this less-polished early effort. This collection of stories was very dark, which was fitting because I read most of it during our power outage. The premises of the stories were incredibly creative — the title story takes place in a Civil War reenactment facility, a setting already laden with meaning and satire. It was clear in this collection that Saunders had been thinking about America’s shameful history of slavery and how it continues to impact us.
I had read The 400-pound CEO (the best story in this collection, in my opinion) before but had forgotten how brilliant it was. There was a passage at the end about God returning from a break to reprimand the subGod that was pure gold. The novella, Bounty, reminded me of Octavia Butler’s dystopian works and contemporary novels about the underground railroad (e.g. Coates’ The Water Dancer and Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad). It felt unfinished, so I felt disappointed at the end, wanting more.
This short work was a quick read that was sometimes funny and at other times demoralizing. I recommend reading Tenth of December to see Saunders’ abilities on full display.
