The Braindead Megaphone

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		The Braindead Megaphone
		The Braindead Megaphone

基本信息·出版社：Riverhead Trade
·页码：272 页
·出版日期：2007年09月
·ISBN：159448256X
·条形码：9781594482564
·装帧：平装
·正文语种：英语

内容简介 在线阅读本书

The breakout book from "the funniest writer in America"-not to mention an official Genius-a trade paperback original and his first nonfiction collection ever.

George Saunders's first foray into nonfiction is comprised of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are Saunders's travel essays based on his trips to seek out the mysteries of the "Buddha Boy" of Nepal; to attempt to indulge in the extravagant pleasures of Dubai; and to join the exploits of the minutemen at the Mexican border. Saunders expertly navigates the works of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Esther Forbes, and leads the reader across the rocky political landscape of modern America. Emblazoned with his trademark wit and singular vision, Saunders's endeavor into the art of the essay is testament to his exceptional range and ability as a writer and thinker.
作者简介 George Saunders is the author of several books and writes regularly for The New Yorker, Harper's, and GQ. He is the recipient of multiple National Magazine Awards. He teaches at Syracuse University. Author websites: inpersuasionnation.com, reignofphil.com, georgesaundersland.com.
媒体推荐 From Bookmarks Magazine
George Saunders’s Braindead Megaphone uses the fiction author’s trademark ability to, as the Boston Globe puts it, "convert his sorrow about mankind into exquisite comedies of disappointment" and applies it to the sometimes surreal and often discomfiting world around him. While most critics appreciate Saunders’s attempt to provide a counterpoint to America’s vitriol-filled but ultimately meaningless media punditry, both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times ridicule his humanistic approach as naïve and overly optimistic. One’s reaction to Saunders’ essays seems to hinge largely on one’s acceptance of his liberal perspective, his faith in the power of narrative, and his primary assertion that "the stories we choose to consume take our measure as a species" (Boston Globe).

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
All the qualities that make Saunders' bristling, inventive short stories distinctive and affecting are present in his rollicking yet piercing essays: droll wit, love of life, high attention to language, satire, and "metaphorical suppleness," which is what he credits Mark Twain with in his penetrating homage "The United States of Huck." A MacArthur fellow whose fiction includes In Persuasion Nation (2006), Saunders also pays tribute to another guiding light, Kurt Vonnegut. A number of essays explicate Saunders' predilection for acrobatic parody and attunement to language's moral dimension, including the exhilarating title essay, which uses an ingenious analogy to explain the precipitous dumbing down of the media and the pernicious results. Saunders is also uncommonly funny, dynamic, and incisive in his reporting on his adventures on the border with a group of quirky and inept Minutemen, his visit to the spanking-new and massively opulent city of Dubai, and his participation in a mystifying vigil in Nepal. With a keen sense of the absurd, incandescent creativity, and abiding empathy, Saunders catapults the essay into new and thrilling directions. Seaman, Donna

Review
"Some novelists seem to make great reporters. Two of the best journalists of the last 50 years are Norman Mailer and David Foster Wallace; their literary nonfiction is jaw-droppingly good, the equal of their fiction. Maybe it's time to add noted short-story writer George Saunders to this short list... Is Saunders' book on target? Hoo boy. [Grade:] A"
-Entertainment Weekly

"Saunders's bitingly clever and compassionate essays are a Mark Twain-syle shot in the arm for Americans, an antidote to the dumbing down virus plaguing our country."
-Vanity Fair


专业书评 From Publishers Weekly
Best known for his absurdist, sci-fi–tinged short stories, Saunders (In Persuasion Nation) offers up an assortment of styles in his first nonfiction collection. Humor pieces from the New Yorker like Ask the Optimist, in which a newspaper advice column spins out of control, reflect the gleeful insanity of his fiction, while others display more earnestness, falling short of his best work. In the title essay, for example, his lament over the degraded quality of American media between the trial of O.J. Simpson and the 9/11 terrorist attacks is indistinguishable from the complaints of any number of cultural commentators. Fortunately, longer travel pieces written for GQ, where Saunders wanders through the gleaming luxury hotels of Dubai or keeps an overnight vigil over a teenage boy meditating in the Nepalese jungle, are enriched by his eye for odd detail and compassion for the people he encounters. He also discusses some of his most important literary influences, including Slaughterhouse Five and Johnny Tremain (he holds up the latter as my first model of beautiful compression—the novel that made him want to be a writer). Despite a few rough spots, these essays contain much to delight. (Sept. 8)
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