Status Updates From The Brain-Dead Megaphone

Buddha Boy: crazy to read up on all the things that have happened with Bomjon since. One more entry!

The United States of Huck: really makes me want to read Mark Twain.

The Perfect Gerbil: Reading Barthelme’s ‘The School’: I feel like I would appreciate this more if I read the story. Very great deconstruction of why the story works though.

Thought Experiment: Saunders continues to push his “woke” message of Kindness and Compassion.

The Great Divider: this has aged EXCEPTIONALLY well

There were a couple of rather snarky entries, Ask the Optimist and Woof. that failed to move me, and in fact to make me feel a bit of the ick, but Saunders came back roaring with The Great Divider, which was brilliant.

Proclamation and Woof: two very funny pieces that I think people are being pompous when they talk about how “terrible” they are.

Ask the Optimist!: probably my least favorite of the collection so far but I did have a lot of fun with it.

My first dive into Saunders's nonfiction (other than some of his writing about writing) has been a pleasure. This is from the early aughts, and some of it is dated, but even the dated material is mostly a pleasure. Loved The Braindead Megaphone, which is sadly quite relevant and Thank You Esther Forbes. I was blown away by The New Mecca and Mr. Vonnegut in Sumatra. A Brief Study of the British was disappointing.

Nostalgia: another really funny essay. Starting to realize this is less non-fiction essay collection and more a hodgepodge of Saunders humor with occasional pieces of real insight.

A Brief Study of the British: hilarious.

Mr. Vonnegut in Sumatra: a loving ode from one author to his inflection point.

A Survey of the Literature: probably the most one of these essays have felt like a Saunders short story in disguise.