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A review by jennydoesnotgetit
Fox 8 by George Saunders
3.0
A sweet story narrated by a sweet fox. What Fox 8 this lacked, as far as I could tell, was the depth and openness of great short stories — fables included. Everything in Fox 8 happens on the surface: the fundamental question, how can humans be so great and also so terrible, is spelled out at the end by our narrator.
Consider another story about fox/human relations: Gon, the Little Fox. It’s about failures to communicate, between generations and between strangers. It too asks how humans can be so great and so terrible. But these themes and questions — along with others — are not literally stated; instead, they are suggested by the content of the story.
If I were more in tune with Saunders’s sense of humor, I would probably rank Fox 8 more highly. But I never found it laugh-out-loud (or even chuckle-out-loud) funny. The story is charming, but not particularly rich or interesting.
Consider another story about fox/human relations: Gon, the Little Fox. It’s about failures to communicate, between generations and between strangers. It too asks how humans can be so great and so terrible. But these themes and questions — along with others — are not literally stated; instead, they are suggested by the content of the story.
If I were more in tune with Saunders’s sense of humor, I would probably rank Fox 8 more highly. But I never found it laugh-out-loud (or even chuckle-out-loud) funny. The story is charming, but not particularly rich or interesting.