There is a middle-aged, debt-ridden father who pleads with God to give him what others have. There is no way out for many of these characters. They are pitiful because they are poor, sick, self-absorbed and mired in hopelessness. Even the manner in they write and speak and punctuate (!) is pitiful. In his collection of short stories, Tenth of December, George Saunders’s characters would all be worthy of Jake’s deadpan irony. Jake answers: Robert Cohn-the name of another character who is pitiful in his self-absorption, self-delusion and failure.
Finally, toward the end of the exchange, Bill Gorton asks Jake to say something pitiful. Jake Barnes has been trying to write fiction, and Bill Gorton is razzing him: “Give me irony and pity, irony and pity.” If you want to be a writer, you must be able to generate irony and pity abundantly and with alacrity. In the midst of Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, a successful novelist, Bill Gorton, demands that his friend, Jake Barnes-the novel’s narrator-give him “irony and pity” one morning in a friendly repartee.
Here, again, are some reflections and questions to guide our discussion:
Thanks, too, to George Saunders, who graciously answered our questions about his book and about the art of fiction. Thanks to those who have already posted questions on the Catholic Book Club page. Today the Catholic Book Club begins its discussion of Tenth of December by George Saunders.
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