’How do you really tell the truth about this moment?’: George Saunders on ghosts, mortality and Trump’s America
The Guardian • • general
Key Points:
- George Saunders’s new novel, Vigil, like his Booker Prize-winning Lincoln in the Bardo, is a ghost story that explores themes of mortality, legacy, and empathy, focusing on an oil tycoon confronted by spirits on his deathbed over his climate change denial.
- Saunders is drawn to ghost stories because they allow exploration of memory, mortality, and deeper truths beyond the present moment, using supernatural elements to challenge conventional perspectives on life and death.
- His writing is deeply influenced by personal experiences, including a near-death encounter on a plane and his Buddhist spirituality, which shape his focus on compassion, kindness, and the human capacity for empathy.
- Saunders’s work often satirizes American society through fantastical dystopian settings, and he believes
