Hannah’s Pick of the Week: Vigil by George Saunders

“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.

Below: a fountain.

At the center of the fountain: a gold-­plated statue.

Of a dog. (Someone must have really loved that dog.)

In the mouth of the golden dog: a golden duck. The duck’s beak was hanging open in death and a pocked area in its flank seemed meant to represent the entry-­field of the shot-­cluster.

I observed all of this as I plummeted past and then my head and torso pierced the asphalt crust of a semicircular drive and lodged in the dirt below.”

George Saunders, Vigil, page 1

Jill “Doll” Blaine has just found herself falling to Earth. She materializes as she morphs into her favorite outfit, the one that she was buried in: Beige skirt, pale pink blouse, black pumps. She knows her directive: it’s time to comfort the soon-to-be deceased.

However, Jill’s target does not want to be consoled, nor does he want to repent or spill regrets. K. J. Boone is larger-than-life, and will be larger-than-death once his time finally comes, decaying in his Texan McMansion with his faithful wife by his side. What does this oil executive have to be sorry for? Bringing energy to the people? Keeping the economy growing? He’s traveled all over the world! Even if those hippie-dippy environmentalist types want to spit in his eye, they still know his name!

And it’s exactly those types to float into Boone’s bedchamber (and into his mind), ranging from the the despairing ghost of a Frenchman who supposedly invented the engine, to Boone’s own father, to a young girl trying to enjoy her youth in a world of intense weather extremes, to a man in India who starved to death due to drought and famine. Blaine finds her faith in her mission tested as she reflects on her own life and death, popping in to the backyard wedding next door in order to feel something, anything, again.

At a brief 174 pages, Vigil is Saunders’ literary firecracker — you’d think it would feel like a flash in the pan, but it drags you into a haunting world of technicolor experiences and bombastic emotions. The world building is fantastic, and the magical realism elements and discussion of important topics are layered, witty, and nuanced. Dense in both its exploration of death, greed, and redemption, and its prose, Vigil is not one to miss if you enjoyed The Apology by Jimin Han or The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka.