Books like CivilWarLand in Bad Decline

Have you ever heard a politically incorrect joke and laughed, and then felt guilty, but then laughed again?Have you ever driven by a car wreck and slowed down to see the emergency response vehicles, and the vehicle made to look like a damaged accordion?Have you ever watched a reality TV show and saw folks fighting each other and tearing clothes and being separated by bouncers and realized you were hypnotized by the gross lowest common denominator humanity?Have you read Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders?Twisted. Degenerate. Profligate. Absolutely and unconditionally brilliant.I loved it and am seeking counseling.If Kurt Vonnegut had a redheaded stepchild, that illegitimate heir to the black comedic, satirical throne may be George Saunders. Civilwarland in Bad Decline, his 1996 collection of short stories and one novella is Vonnegutesque in the sense that Saunders pokes relentless fun at our society and culture, accepts Louis CK-like the abashed groans, and then plunges ahead with more of his acerbic, vitriolic and wickedly funny as hell slam dunk on our society. But that really doesn’t fit either, a slam-dunk is too pedestrian and neutral of a reference. Saunders takes our capitalistic, Judeo-Christian, western civilization morals and ethics and delivers an MMA beat down that would make Quinton "Rampage" Jackson wince.Vonnegut, Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs and Harry Crews in a literary tag team no-holds barred grudge match.His characters wheeze and moan with pathetic life and piss themselves. There is casual, negligent murder followed by halfhearted suburban, banal regret. Saunders describes flagrant, unapologetic infidelity both literally and metaphorically. His is not just the gutter, but a glittery and neon bright cesspool meandering into a dog bowl.Saunders demonstrates his skill with the unreliable narrator the same way Picasso did with the color blue. If he were a harmful drug he would not be heroin but rather a ball peen hammer and a shot of El Torro tequila. Use with moderation.Take the eponymous story for example, Civilwarland in Bad Decline. An absurd parody of a theme park suffering financial setbacks amidst roving teenage vandals. There are ghosts of Civil War era people haunting the grounds of the fake interactive museum. Then there is a mentally disturbed war veteran – in the fake theme park haunted by formerly real live civil war veterans.Several short stories and a novella – and the theme and tone of the collection coalesces into the novella “Bounty”, a caustic satire of Americana gone all wrong.And so it goes.