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A review by hopebrasfield
Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders
5.0
Read this very slowly via ebook which isn't something I normally do (finish an ebook) but I sure am glad I went that route because I ended up needing to highlight a whole lot on account of how incredible it was. No clue if Saunders meant for this to be a collection of stories that connected in some way or not, but each of them felt like "stories about people who have no internal awareness whatsoever, but are very hopeful that one day everybody will acknowledge just how wonderful they are (whether they're actually wonderful or not)," which I loved. It's a book full of stories of people lying to themselves, and why wouldn't they.
Too many quotes I either wrote down or highlighted to write down later, but here are a few:
"We are still riffing somewhat on top of the facts [...], but with so many facts at our disposal, there is less need, as well as less room within which, to riff." (from "Liberation Day")
"What is right, what is wrong, in this situation? What a small question! What is great? That is what my heart longs to ask. What is lush? What is bold, what is daring? In which direction lies maximum richness, abundance, delight?" (from "Liberation Day")
"This is all new to me, this wanting of something. I want further congress with her more than I want what I have previously always wanted most: i.e., to be so good at what I do that none may find fault with me and everyone is super pleased with me and agrees that I have no real competition in my field." (from "Liberation Day")
"He has no work, no art, no dreams, no joy. He just has anger and a fondness for being correct in his energetic, self-righteous disapproval of all that he sees." (from "Liberation Day")
"There, in bed, I felt, for a brief instant, that it was that time again and not this time. Lying there, I found myself wondering, for the first time in a long while, not 'what should I have done?' but 'what might I yet do?'" (from "Love Letter")
"I am going, friend, I am all but gone, I believe you prideful and wrong but I have no desire, now, to cure you. Your wrongness was an idea I had. I am all but gone. My idea of your wrongness will go with me. Your rightness is an idea you are having. It will go with you. For all that, I hope you live forever, and if the place falls down around you, as it seems to be doing, I hope even that brings you joy. It was always falling down around you, everything has always been falling down around us. Only we were too alive to notice. [...] Friend who might have been. Friend who should have been." (from "My House")
"Honestly, surprisingly, I find myself filled with hope. What new life might we now begin, free of the prospect of ever being Visited? Who might we become, sans roles? Toward what more generous purpose might we direct our considerable, until-now-misspent energies?" (from "Ghoul")
"Sometimes in life the foundation upon which one stands will give a tilt, and everything one has previously believed and held dear will begin sliding about, and suddenly all things will seem strange and new." (from "Ghoul")
(This last one is hard to write out because the spacing is more like poetry and I'm sure I'm going to mess it up. But the story broke me and I've got to get it down so I don't forget. The longer spaces are on purpose, and "/" represents a paragraph break.)
"Is that man me, now? Would I, man I am now, knock down Ruth, throw bear on grill, get in Electra, drive to Tom's Dizzy Oasis, get further blotto? / No. / If I could go back in yard? Would take bear from fire Pull ring off bear Give ring to Ruth, saying: Ruth, sorry, let us love each other forever. / But Ruth married Philip, moved far away I recall I now recall. / If ruth not gone Ma not death I would say: Ruth, Ma, the me I was then is not the only me I may ever There is a me under that me who yet wishes to do lovely in this magnificent / Watch, Ruth: Watch, Ma: This new me in what time he has left? / Will try." (from "Elliott Spencer")
Too many quotes I either wrote down or highlighted to write down later, but here are a few:
"We are still riffing somewhat on top of the facts [...], but with so many facts at our disposal, there is less need, as well as less room within which, to riff." (from "Liberation Day")
"What is right, what is wrong, in this situation? What a small question! What is great? That is what my heart longs to ask. What is lush? What is bold, what is daring? In which direction lies maximum richness, abundance, delight?" (from "Liberation Day")
"This is all new to me, this wanting of something. I want further congress with her more than I want what I have previously always wanted most: i.e., to be so good at what I do that none may find fault with me and everyone is super pleased with me and agrees that I have no real competition in my field." (from "Liberation Day")
"He has no work, no art, no dreams, no joy. He just has anger and a fondness for being correct in his energetic, self-righteous disapproval of all that he sees." (from "Liberation Day")
"There, in bed, I felt, for a brief instant, that it was that time again and not this time. Lying there, I found myself wondering, for the first time in a long while, not 'what should I have done?' but 'what might I yet do?'" (from "Love Letter")
"I am going, friend, I am all but gone, I believe you prideful and wrong but I have no desire, now, to cure you. Your wrongness was an idea I had. I am all but gone. My idea of your wrongness will go with me. Your rightness is an idea you are having. It will go with you. For all that, I hope you live forever, and if the place falls down around you, as it seems to be doing, I hope even that brings you joy. It was always falling down around you, everything has always been falling down around us. Only we were too alive to notice. [...] Friend who might have been. Friend who should have been." (from "My House")
"Honestly, surprisingly, I find myself filled with hope. What new life might we now begin, free of the prospect of ever being Visited? Who might we become, sans roles? Toward what more generous purpose might we direct our considerable, until-now-misspent energies?" (from "Ghoul")
"Sometimes in life the foundation upon which one stands will give a tilt, and everything one has previously believed and held dear will begin sliding about, and suddenly all things will seem strange and new." (from "Ghoul")
(This last one is hard to write out because the spacing is more like poetry and I'm sure I'm going to mess it up. But the story broke me and I've got to get it down so I don't forget. The longer spaces are on purpose, and "/" represents a paragraph break.)
"Is that man me, now? Would I, man I am now, knock down Ruth, throw bear on grill, get in Electra, drive to Tom's Dizzy Oasis, get further blotto? / No. / If I could go back in yard? Would take bear from fire Pull ring off bear Give ring to Ruth, saying: Ruth, sorry, let us love each other forever. / But Ruth married Philip, moved far away I recall I now recall. / If ruth not gone Ma not death I would say: Ruth, Ma, the me I was then is not the only me I may ever There is a me under that me who yet wishes to do lovely in this magnificent / Watch, Ruth: Watch, Ma: This new me in what time he has left? / Will try." (from "Elliott Spencer")