Vigil by George Saunders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First, the good:

It's a stream of consciousness wild ride that reminds me of all modernist fiction--rambling and detailed and seemingly chaotic as hell, but always with a purpose, a line through which all passes.

Hell, I was reminded quite a bit of Mitchell's Bone Clocks as I read this. I even wanted to expect something more science-fictiony to come out of it. Imagine my consternation if, upon wanting to read this BECAUSE it was supposed to be speculative fiction, it turned out to be just another "oh, look, dead people judging other soon-to-be-dead people, don't you feel regret now" book.

The bad:

You might have guessed it already.


A Christmas Carol without Christmas.

Ah, alas, but I should be fair about this: the text IS a chaotic and fascinating ride, overflowing with cliches strapped to a whip. It WAS entertaining. It just wasn't a book that broke any boundaries. At all.

I suspect this book might suffer from high expectations.


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