Tenth of December: Stories

Written by George Saunders

Narrated by George Saunders

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AND BUZZFEED’S BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: People, The New York Times Magazine, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, New York, The Telegraph, BuzzFeed, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, Shelf Awareness

One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet.

In the taut opener, “Victory Lap,” a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In “Home,” a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill—the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders’s signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation.

Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human.

Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of December—through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spirit—not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhov’s dictum that art should “prepare us for tenderness.”

GEORGE SAUNDERS WAS NAMED ONE OF THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD BY TIME MAGAZINE

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9780385359740

George Saunders

George Saunders is the author of thirteen books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Booker Prize in 2017, and five collections of stories including Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the recent collection Liberation Day (selected by former President Obama has one of his ten favourite books of 2021). Three of Saunders' books –Pastoralia, Tenth of December, and Lincoln in the Bardo – were chosen for the New York Times' list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Saunders hosts the popular Story Club on Substack, which grew out of his book on the Russian short story, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. In 2013, he was named one of the world's 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.

Reviews for Tenth of December

[keebrook · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

stream of consciousness somewhat, reminiscent somewhat of Cormac McCarthy i thought. what makes one want to continue the author’s style in a review? some semblance of same anyway?

who knows. no idea. well, maybe some idea.

this collection of short stories or even vignettes surprised me. i have just fairly recently discovered Mr. Saunders in the last year or two via podcasts about him and featuring him but i had not read yet read him until now. i expected not science fiction. i expected not satire. how did i miss that? i suppose because what i had listened to and read focused more on his philosophy and opinions on life than on his actual writings.

although i did expect the slightly wry dark nature of the writing because that came through on the snippets i had experienced. but full on science satire? nope.

does this represent the old prejudice against science fiction? how “science fiction” has often garnered disdain and contempt in literary circles as childish pulp, little better than cartoon hack? did Vonnegut write science fiction? even Cormac McCarthy wrote the Road which even stands firmly further into that most contemptuous of science fiction corridors of post-apocalyptic scifi. i do not even recall seeing that referred to as science fiction. Margaret Atwood prefers the term “speculative fiction” and i can see why. not the least for the culture push-back one seems to receive when labeling something science fiction but also because sometimes the plot does not unfold from an epicenter of science technology or receive impetus from such tech, like. so, the Road falls into that latter category for sure and Vonnegut, too, maybe but Spiderhead, Semplica Girl, and Chivalric in this book do wind up and run on tech affecting life.

the ideas brought forth intrigue as the best science fiction does. i have also seen Saunders’s writing described as “hilarious.” i do not find this an accurate term. i do see the satire in his work which, by definition, means humor but i see a dark humor, a melancholy dry wit and pith rather than outright mirth. it takes the reader by the tip of the nose into speculations and ponderings about society and humanity, yes, but also a more visceral journey of often uncomfortable emotions. Saunders very clearly scratches at the cellar door of atavistic archetypes we humans hope to hide and hide from. he does his damnedest to give us the willies while wrapping that trip in character quirk and prose of a less conventional nature. a kind of guerilla ontology.

all of this to say that i liked the book, see its value, found it provocative, but did not love it for purely superficial aesthetic reasons. i do want to read more though.

[technodiabla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I do not generally care for short stories -- I'm more of a novel person. But I like Saunders. As with any collection, some stories are better than others. Tenth of December was my favorite but many were very good. The collection is held together by themes: toxic families, characters that are on the fringes-- damaged, excluded, strange-- and glimpses of redemption (the glimpse is often quickly stolen back as there's a lot of depressing endings.) I wish he would write another novel.

[thisisstephenbetts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining short stories. A cutting cynical edge, but mostly retaining some affection for its cast of hapless delusional losers. Mostly. A touch of misanthropy creeps through at times.

There's some very bad parenting here, mostly in the past of our sad chumps. Many of the stories take place in the near future, with small but significant technological advances - though progress is rarely seen to be for the better.

The last, eponymous story is the stand-out - eschewing the future gazing, it's a sad simple story of despair and redemption.

Recommended, especially for those in need of some bleak laughs in the darkness.

[therem-417856 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Perceptive, frequently hilarious, and sometimes quite moving, these stories are masterfully crafted and quite attention-grabbing. So much so that I finished the collection in just two days! Probably not the ideal way to read it; I felt some of the stories suffered a bit from the proximity in my brain to the previous ones I had just read. I might have to reread to fully appreciate some of them. That being said, I have already read my favorite story in the collection, "Sticks", several times -- easy to do, because it's only one page long! Bleak yet quite funny, it sketches a whole life story in a few brief strokes. A model of narrative economy.

[markm2315 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A series of very similar stories that are all both funny and tragic. GS says in an afterward discussion with David Sedaris that he likes to put ordinary people in a high-pressure circumstance and see what happens, i.e. he claims that he doesn't plan his stories out, but rather starts with an idea or situation and just sees where it goes. There are assorted delightful things here; medications that make characters fall in love or speak in Olde English, a reality TV show called I, Gropius that I will not describe, and, in more than one story, the redemption of an heroic act.

[Note: Some years ago I read a story that I liked a lot. I don't recall the title or author. It was the story of an overweight young man with OCD-like repetitive thoughts about his perceived worthlessness who stumbles upon a struggling child rushing down a river. It is so similar to these stories that I wonder if GS wrote it...? Let me know if you know it. [Note within note: I think it was probably The Falls. It was in the January 22, 1996 New Yorker. And it might be in Pastoralia.]]

[steve02476 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Liked the interior monologues and the slightly SF stuff. Not exactly optimistic but sympathetic to humanity. And funny.

[mkfs-354306 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Sometimes science sucks"
Guy is in prison and being experimented on by a pharmaceutical development company. Neither the crime the guy was sentenced for, nor the nature of the experiments themselves, are very convincing.

[booksfordinner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed some of these stories ire than others, but they were all crafted well of course…enjoy his writing on writing more than his writing? Hah!!

[ibkennedy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lovely short stories

[tytania-2 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I only read this short story collection for my book club. It was extremely disturbing and not my cup of tea.

[gbill_7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A brilliant collection of ten short stories from George Saunders – funny, poignant, and touching on things like class, aging, and the dehumanizing aspects of modern science. There is creativity and breadth here, an easy flow to the writing, and great pace. I also liked the excerpt of the conversation Saunders had with David Sedaris about the writing process itself that was present in this volume, which also talked about the semi-sacred, near-holy aspect of reading.

Favorites:
Tenth of December – the title story is actually last in the collection, but is so brilliant and memorable that I put at the top of the list. In it, an elderly man with a terminal illness elects to end his (and his family’s) suffering by hiking out into the snow of a deserted area. A boy with an active imagination is also out there, however, and they’re destined to meet. The imaginations of these two people, at such opposite ends of life, their struggles, and the great humanism in how the story plays out were masterful. Considering my own father at the end of his days while reading this was devastating.

Victory Lap – a story of a kidnapping attempt cleverly told through the eyes of three people – a teenage girl (the intended victim), the criminal, and the teenage boy across the street. The boy’s parents are very strict, making the description of his life pretty funny, and we hear their voices in his mind, just as we hear the criminal’s parents’ voices in his. Parenting styles are thus reflected in these people – e.g. probably loving and supporting (resulting in a fanciful imagination and maybe naively opening the door to a stranger), cruel (resulting in cruelty), and ridiculously structured (resulting in rebelling in imagined obscenities but still feeling the heaviness of their instructions within his mind). A very well-executed story.

Puppy – also very well done, and another window into parenting, this time with mom who is fully invested and supportive of her kids (tellingly a reaction to how poor her own mother had been), travelling to look at a puppy that’s up for adoption. Even in how the woman thinks of the playfulness of her husband, and the strength of her faith and optimism, we sense that the kids are in a wonderful family. Once they get to the place with the puppy, however, they get a disturbing glimpse into a family living in filth with a ‘problem child’ chained up in the back, which is quite a contrast. Saunders wisely humanizes the mother in that environment and gives her a lovely thought: “Love was liking someone how he was and doing things to help him get even better,” but still paints a pretty horrifying picture.

Escape from Spiderhead – really enjoyed this one, a tale of near-futuristic experimentation on prisoners, where scientists inject them with advanced drugs to cause specific reactions. We see a broad spectrum of drugs, including one that induce the person to see another as their deepest possible soulmate, and one that causes horrible feelings of pain and depression. I loved it because it hints at how delicate our brain chemistries are, just a little tweak here and there and suddenly our entire outlooks are changed, which rings true, and because it touches on how cruel people can be, thinking they’re acting for the greater good. Well written, and could see this one expanded and made into a film.

The Semplica Girl Diaries – a story that parodies a man through his diary entries, recounting his attempts to be a good parent and to have the better things in life like his daughter’s rich friends. It’s got some of those same elements of humor, but then the horror of what the rich friends have gradually unfolds, giving the story a very dark edge. The only thing that wore on me a bit was the semi-literate narration from the diary entries, which pushed the boundaries of enjoyability given this story’s length, 60 pages.

My Chivalric Fiasco – A janitor at a medieval theme park stumbles across his boss raping a co-worker, and in the effort to insuring his silence, finds himself promoted to playing one of the costumed roles. As part of that role he’s given a designer drug meant to make him speak as a knight would, but it has the side effect that it also makes him more honorable – thus making it hard for him to hold his tongue about the crime. It’s a creative, funny story, and the narration that’s modulated to the drug’s onset and gradual withdrawal is clever.

Others:
Sticks – literally two pages long, detailing a family ritual of decorating a metal pole in the yard, and how it reflects the psyche of the father in increasingly blunt ways as he gets older. An interesting little vignette that speaks to regret and loss, but it would have been nice if it had been further developed.

Exhortation – An email sent to the employees of a company asking them to work harder, where the humor comes from just how non-self-aware the manager is, and how he contradicts himself in his lame attempt to improve morale. Lots of fun probably for anyone who has been in a corporate environment.

Al Roosten – A middle-aged man who runs a failing business volunteers himself for a fundraising auction where people bid on having lunch with him and others, including a more successful and attractive man that he alternately envies, hates, and befriends in his imagination. It’s funny how he consistently sees himself as better than he is, e.g. during the auction or thinking he can become mayor, and so when Saunders shows him thinking he’s better than the homeless, who he refers to as “hobos” and thinks of in an old-fashioned way of stealing pies off windowsills, we see even more how out of touch he is (and how he may become homeless someday).

Home – Probably the least successful story for me; a veteran who was dishonorably discharged returns to his hometown to see his mother, who is living with a deadbeat, and his sister and her husband. While Saunders is talking about class in this story and several others, here it just felt rather dull, and I wish he had delved a little more into the vet’s psyche after what he had seen and taken part in while in the military.

[tmph_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Just a bit too much "style" for my taste. Fine writing, somewhat interesting, started skipping immediately.

[nancyjean19 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dystopian stories with hearts of gold. Saunders has an uncanny ability to transcribe those weird, only partly formed little thoughts we have and weave them into powerful, and funny, narratives. A unique book.

[bookishtexpat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

George Saunders is a fantastic writer. The way he writes environments, settings, and emotions pulled me completely into the worlds of the short stories in this collection. The stories were a little hit or miss for me - I adored "Escape from Spiderhead" (I would read a 400 page novel about the world he creates there) and "The Semplica Girl Diaries" but didn't love "Exhortation" or "Al Roosten." Overall this was a great collection of short stories and I'll be picking more Saunders up in the future.

[cail_judy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Goddamn George Saunders, you rose above the hype. "The Semplica Girl Diaries" is genius, as is "Victory Lap" and "Escape from Spiderhead." I didn't expect to be so moved by these stories. This is a clever, human collection. Saunders' verbal dexterity enhances the dreams and plights of his characters.

This book was read in a hospital waiting room, an American Airlines plane and finished poolside in Mexico.

[paul9the9well9read · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is a popular and well thought of book. Go figure.

[bookappeal · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A deeply weird, darkly comical collection of stories exposing class envy and exploring an array of ethical decisions. Saunders loves to make up words which can be fun but he also delves into the selfish and shameful aspects of human emotion, giving many of these stories a depressing tone. Some of the scenarios he imagines for these stories are worthy of any science fiction or fantasy novel and Saunders' ideas about the future of our society are decidedly not optimistic.

[steller0707 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Saunders' stories are so original with interesting characters confronted with a moral problem. My Jesuit friend looks for movies in which the characters struggle with an ethical problem and move, sometimes in a roundabout way, to redemption. The characters in these stories remind me of this way of "seeing." Notable in the collection are the title story, Tenth of December, and Escape from Spiderhead. But all are of high quality.

[sethwilpan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I agree with everyone who thinks he's a genius.

[danielstj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This short story collection was a miss for me. The stories attempt to be full of humor and satire, while at the same time formulating opinions and perceptions of class related to character, but I did not find them to be conceptually relevant. Overall, a disappointing read. However, I will not give up on Saunders yet.

2 stars.

[asxz-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not as earth-shattering as the reviews had lead me to believe. The stories are could just as easily have fitted into one of his earlier collections. That's not a criticism, as I love Saunders's short stories, but the hype made me think this collection would display the author's evolution. It was more of the same.

[datrappert · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have mixed reactions to Saunders’ writing. First, can anyone live up to the ridiculous level of praise from the blurbs on the cover of this trade paperback edition? That come from everywhere, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Khaled Hosseini? Is Saunders that good a writer? I’m forced to say “no.” Not that he isn’t always interesting. At his best, such as in the title story, he weaves together events in a way that end up telling us a lot about human nature, the human spirit, and ultimately ourselves, since if fiction doesn’t have some effect on the reader, even in a totally vicarious way, I think it fails. Another story that passes this test is “Victory Lap.” But often, as in “The Semplica Girl Diaries” and at least half of the other stories in this volume, there is an artificiality that is just annoying. You just want to shout at the author, “Can’t you just tell the story without fritzing around so much?” Sometimes, Saunders manages to ultimately succeed even when he is doing a lot of fritzing around, such as in the dystopian “Escape from Spiderhead.” One thing I must give him credit for is his imagination. Reading this collection, you don’t ever fall into a sense of monotony, seeing story after story proceed down the same path. But like his other collection I read, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, I just can’t fully embrace his style. Recently, I read Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son. The experience, compared to reading Saunders, is remarkably different. With Johnson, it is total immersion. It is a shorter book that compels you to read it in one sitting. It is never boring or annoying. While I didn’t give it a perfect review, it is certainly more of my model for great short story writing. Or Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Near-perfect writing that never calls undue attention to itself or gets in the way of the story. Clearly, this just isn’t the type of writer Saunders is. The back of this edition includes a very interesting interview with Saunders conducted by David Sedaris (who joins the bandwagon of praising Saunders to the sky). It is clear that Saunders intentions are the best, and in some stories he achieves them. But if he is to be held up as the standard of the short story, it doesn’t speak too well of the state of the critical art.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was looking forward to reading this book after hearing an interview with the author on one of the late night talk shows. I clearly didn't get it. I felt like I should have been on drugs while reading it, as it was very bizarre. The prose was difficult for me to follow. Some of the stories were OK, but as a whole, not for me.

[abycats_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Intricately constructed to the extent of obscuring characterization but fascinating nonetheless. Several of the stories will stick in my mind for quite awhile. Found it impossible to read more than one in an evening. On the other hand, much of it seemed quirky for quirk's sake. Would have preferred straight scifi than this somewhat awkward mix of imagination, odd structure, and remarkably unpleasant people and outcomes.

[Javier Rosenberg · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For those who love stories, it's a true gem. With a particular style and fresh tales, it depicts a world that could be ours or as close as the psychopathic killer around the corner. (Translated from Spanish)

[algybama · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Emotionally manipulative, riveting, though somewhat limited. The same characters and themes keep coming up in only slightly different guises, though they're always funny and gut-wrenching and wonderful.

[ohernaes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Short stories. The most memorable one is The Semplica-Girl Diaries, a tragicomic story of a short-sighted couple making a mess of things. Key ingredients of that story are the eponymous (human) Semplica-girls. Funny and serious. Recommended.

[profh-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely extraordinary, breathtaking, imaginative, original, beautiful...I could go on and on.

Perhaps the highest complaints I can give are the following: 1) I'm very jealous of the author's talent 2) I ordered two of his other collections and began rereading from page one while I await delivery. I imagine I'll spend the next few months trying to read everything Saunders has written.

Simply put Tenth of December gave me the feeling of reading Joyce, Naipaul, Rushdie, Shakespeare, or Tolstoy for the first time. This is work that makes me aware of possibilities in literature that I didn't know existed.

[mrgan-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's as good as you've been told it is.

[mitchell_bergeson_jr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this collection of short stories by Saunders. While all the stories are good, here are my favorites (in order):

1) "Tenth of December" (The New Yorker, 2011)

2) "Escape from Spiderhead" (The New Yorker, 2010)

3) "Sticks" (Harper's, 1995)

4) "The Semplica Girl Diaries" (The New Yorker, 2012)

5) "Puppy" (The New Yorker, 2007)

In these stories, Saunders breaks down some of societies greatest vices: Avarice, control, apathy and cruelty. There is not anything mind blowing about these stories, but afterwards you will feel more aware and alive -that is what all good literature should be about.


“What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering and I responded … sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.”
― George Saunders, Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness