A Conversation with George Saunders (Vassar Review, 2017)

Having just written a novel set in Civil War-era America [Lincoln in the Bardo] – and having therefore imaginatively occupied that time period for the past several years – are there lessons or reflections you might bring to bear on our own domestic struggles, our worsening divides? 

Well, one thing you realize, reading about the Civil War, is that it can get worse than it is right now.  We aren’t in the “overt violence” phase yet. ….The main thing I took away from that immersion was the sense that our country is really still a work-in-progress, and a really valid work to try and get right.  On a deeper level, I had a nice puzzling moment when I wrote into this idea that Lincoln – so kind, so sad – was going to have to go out and lead this massive slaughter in order to end slavery.  That still strikes me as a mind-blowing revelation of what good and evil look like in the world, on their feet. 

Read on at Vassar Review