I'm sorry but I didn't like this book at all. Its a collection of short stories that I found blunt, boring, uninsightful and just plain pedestrian. It seemed like Saunders was using a few tricks to captivate the reader but never got beyond that. Some interesting ideas but not very well written and not that well executed either. Gimicky but the one thing that I will give it is that it shows a side of western culture that isn't often seen. It seems that most books are written about a tightly perscribed subject matter. Kind of like the people who write books know exactly who their audience is, and in a way only hold up a mirror. Thats where you get all these books written about writers. In Pastoralia, you get to see the slums. Lots and lots of dumb people too. This is the group of people that when you talk in academic circles, noone really believes exists. You try to ask "Who the hell elected George Bush" and none of your friends can answer because for the most part, they all think like you do. It's very hard to get this portion of the population represented in literature because the people who usually write literature don't associate with "low-lifes". Cool to see a huge sector of the voting power that usually isn't seen but otherwise, this collection of short stories just falls flat. Characters are thin, plots are far out but totally bogus.
Read it if you want to see the people who think being in the Iraq war is a good thing, but otherwise, I'd stay away from it.
Andrew
ps sorry James I liked the other books you recommended.
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