The Washington Post, July 23rd, 2000
New short fiction explores shams, secrets and dreams--and sends up the American vernacular. Reading three new collections of short stories all at once, in rapid succession, is akin to performing a CAT scan on the art form. Happily, the patient can be reported alive and well, suffering perhaps from a touch of jaundiced attitude. That's the case, at least, to judge from George Saunders's funny and dyspeptic new book, Pastoralia (Riverhead, $22.95). Appallingly bad behavior and awesome stupidity are presented with deadpan matter-of-factness in Saunders's work, and his characters expertly rational...
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