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Tenth of December
Tenth of December
George Saunders | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
8
7.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Dark, disturbing and satirical
This collection of short stories cannot be pigeon-holed. In this oddly disjointed, surreal collection, the underlying issues in modern American culture are loudly explored. George Saunders' breathless writing style floods over terrible realities and hard truths, leaving the reader gasping in its wake.

Tenth of December handles its running themes in a poignant, individual and certainly irreverent way. Narcissistic ideas of charity stems from trivial competition, while sheer denial is shown in the face of true poverty. Generations breed generations, passing on corrupted ideals and traumatic examples. Paedophilia, racism, poverty: nothing is safe from these chastising, powerful stories.

Saunders leaves an expunged, brutally telling view of the American dream. In his futuristic imaginings, he exaggerates the failings of Western consumerism, yet ultimately his message is clear: When one tries to have it all, they're left with nothing.
  
The Stepford Wives (1975)
The Stepford Wives (1975)
1975 | Drama, Thriller
Bryan Forbes' SF-horror-satire has left a cultural impression out of all proportion to its original box-office success. Nice modern couple leave grimy New York for idyllic small town of Stepford, where everyone seems happy and the women are thoroughly domesticated. What on Earth can the secret of the place be...?


 Subtle storytelling and fine performances do a good job of masking the fact that the premise of the story is basically a paranoid fever-dream; oddly, some people interpreted the film as being anti-feminist and actually misogynistic, when it is actually about male objectification of women and fears of the same (maybe also has stuff to say about consumerism too). Perhaps a bit overlong, but the slow aggregation of details adds a lot to a convincingly unsettling atmosphere. An entertaining horror fable.