BOOK CLUB: Charles Koch in the bardo
Thoughts on beginning our February pick, “Vigil,” by George Saunders
Our February Ink Book Club pick is Vigil, by George Saunders, By any measure it’s an enthralling, if challenging work of fiction, which opens this way: “What a lovely home I found myself plummeting toward, acquiring, as I fell, arms, hands, legs, feet, all of which, as usual, became more substantial with each passing second.”
Vigil is, by Saunders’ own measure, an experimental novel that challenges the reader to relax into the author’s playful, meditative, and asymmetrical narrative rhythm. Vigil is not a cozy book, but it is a provocative one. The mystery of where the novel is going deepens with every page, as does my admiration for Saunders’ willingness to go there.
There are many book critics who delight in the sound of their own voices, preferring them to the words of the authors they’re reviewing, but that’s never been true of Ron Charles, and the ex-Washington Post critic likened the book to a postmodern version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, calling it “strangely weird” and observing that “this is, in a sense, Charles Koch in the Bardo,” a reference to both the anti-hero of Vigil, an oil baron on his deathbed, and Saunders’ first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, which imagines President Lincoln, wracked by loss and negotiating purgatory.
I cite Ron Charles because his intellect and literary chops never translate into condescension or sarcasm. He gets authors and appreciates their willingness to keep pushing boundaries in pursuit of their art, while being unafraid to identify flaws. As I wrote on Friday, the loss of The Washington Post’s Book World review section is of seismic magnitude, not least because it deprives Ron Charles of an outlet (though he is now writing here on Substack). The New York Times reviewed Vigil, but I had trouble penetrating the snark:
Saunders’s new novel, Vigil, is slim, about the size of Mitch Albom’s memoir Tuesdays with Morrie or Richard Bach’s novella Jonathan Livingston Seagull. It’s not as soft and shallow and saccharine and strenuously earnest as those books, but it’s not impossibly far off. It’s a hot-water bottle in print form. It’s going to be an enormous bestseller for depressing reasons.
No offense to those other two authors, but — you’re comparing Saunders to them?
I’m certain there will be a range of views on Vigil, and whether Saunders’ most recent literary experiment is deemed successful. But it seems many have already risen to its challenge: the novel will debut at #1 on next Sunday’s New York Times bestseller list. Go bibliophiles!
The turns of phrase, the surprising twists, the moral compass behind it all — these thrill me. I can’t wait to discuss it all with you, Ink Book Clubbers, over the coming weeks, and then when we meet with the author himself on Wednesday, February 25, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, here on The Ink Live.
But I can’t help going back to the annihilation of Book World. The loss is gargantuan. And a few of you commented on our conversation around that, weighing in that the cuts at the Post — despite the official framing, that “this venture isn’t profitable” — were clearly not for financial reasons, as Bezos has all the money in the world. True. So why do you think this evisceration is happening? Is it that Bezos doesn’t care about this property, or that he’s willfully silencing it? My personal takeaway is what I referenced on Friday, that billionaires no longer feel they have to worry about looking magnanimous. The masks are off.
As I wrote this, the news broke that Will Lewis, the Murdoch veteran who, as publisher and chief executive of The Washington Post, oversaw the firing of three hundred employees this past week, has himself stepped down. Go figure.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
Read my full essay on the end of Book World at the link below:
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