And you're just kind of waiting for one little detail to come in that will liven it up. 'For me, one of the deepest pleasures is going into my writing shed day after day today I have to write that scene where Robin makes that decision. And so then, the trick for the next 12 years was to preserve the intensity of that first thing without having it just merely be a propagandistic preaching job.'īook Reviews 'The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil' So I woke up from that dream, and it had some kind of political, metaphorical implications. I have finally arrived.' - And just this feeling of gratitude that I could do this wonderful thing for my family. But the person I was, who was seeing this disturbing image, was actually overjoyed and happy at the thing that he should have been disgusted by. They had on these beautiful white smocks. And I understood these to be kind of lawn ornaments. And the clothesline actually went through their heads. In my dream, I went to the window in our house, and looked out in our yard, and there were these four five Third World women hanging on a kind of clothesline. 'I dreamed the basic image of the story, which is really disturbing. On the origin of ' The Semplica-Girl Diaries,' a story that took 12 years to write George Saunders' previous books include In Persuasion Nation and The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip. When you get it right, it can be such a beautiful explosion of submerged meaning.' 'I just find it so beautiful, and I have not figured it out yet,' Saunders says. He started writing short stories in his early 20s, and says he only planned to write a few before moving on to novels. Saunders, who won the MacArthur 'genius grant' for his work, told Jacki Lyden, host of weekends on All Things Considered, that the short story, as a form, presents a challenge he finds irresistible. The New York Times Magazine called it the 'best book you'll read all year.' That was on Jan. The volume has garnered incredible acclaim. His fourth collection of stories, Tenth of December, recently hit the shelves. One story about a professional caveman inspired those Geico commercials. Saunders, a professor at Syracuse University, was once a geological engineer who traveled the world he now crafts stories that combine the absurd and fantastic with the mundane realities of everyday life. George Saunders has been writing short stories for decades. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Tenth of December Author George Saunders

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