In Persuasion Nation

In Persuasion Nation is short story writer George Saunders’s third full length short story collection. Composed of 12 stories originally published between 1999 and 2005, the collection incorporates elements of satire and science fiction and deals with themes of discontent in turn-of-the-millennium America. The collection has stories that appeared in different forms in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, and McSweeney's. As a whole, the collection was a finalist for the 2006 Story Prize. Contents Reception Reviewing the collection in The New York Times, Adam Begley found irony in Saunders' love for satirizing brands and the way his writing style had itself become a brand: "A dedicated satirist, he has made the buying and selling of packaged experience a favorite target of his bitter wit. And yet with his third collection of stories, "In Persuasion Nation," he's peddling a line of signature goods. Expertly made, unmistakably his, they'll be consumed with gusto by the loyal customers who enjoyed "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" and "Pastoralia." It's the kind of ironic twist he delights in: George Saunders, sworn enemy of commodification, is in danger of becoming a dependable brand name." In Salon, Laura Miller wrote, "When he's firing on all cylinders, no one beats George Saunders at rendering the comic nightmare of life as a wage slave in contemporary America." A review in The Nation further focused on Saunders' original style: "Saunders’s laughs are a cover, a diversion, beneath which reside some profoundly serious intentions regarding the morality of how we live and the power of love and immanent death to transform us into vastly better creatures than we could otherwise hope to be. These are the biggest intentions an artist can have."