In 2013, SCPL’s Downtown book club, Booklovers, read George Saunders’ short story collection Tenth of December, which was considered one of the best books of the year by a number of outlets, including the New York Times, and was widely heralded as a masterwork of the format. Saunders is considered one of our greatest living American writers, and his talent as a writer and creative thinker seems to know no limits. So when Booklovers met to discuss Tenth of December, we were shocked at what we heard:

The group hated it.

So in 2021, Jess decided to return to the short story collection that caused such strife in the group (they don’t usually hate anything!) and analyze it with Joseph and Carmanita to see how Tenth of December has aged, if it’s still controversial, and what Saunders may have about the world we’re living in today. As it turns out, George Saunders is out here working in 3013, trying his hardest to catch us all up to his sense of humanity, of kindness, and of self-awareness, all conveyed through a light toe-dip into the world of speculative fiction, especially science fiction and horror. The ten stories in the collection range in length and scope, from “Puppy”, a vignette about two mothers coming together over the sale of a puppy, to “Home”, a Stoker Award nominee about a veteran who can’t figure out where he fits now that he’s back in America.