Book Exploder: George Saunders - Victory Lap

Song Exploder

Hrishikesh Hirway

Music

4.8 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2022

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

George Saunders has won the Booker Prize, and he’s the recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant. He won the Folio Prize for his collection of short stories, Tenth of December, which includes the short story “Victory Lap.” In this episode, Susan and George talk about a passage from “Victory Lap.”

“Victory Lap” is about two teenagers, Alison and Kyle, and what happens when a stranger tries to abduct Alison. In his conversation with Susan, George discusses a passage from the light-hearted opening of the story, before it takes its darker turn.

For more, visit bookexploder.com/episodes/george-saunders.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Book Exploder, where authors break down a passage from their work
0:06.2	to show us how they write.
0:07.6	I'm Rishi Keishirui.
0:09.2	And I'm Susan Orleen.
0:15.9	Today I'm speaking with author George Saunders.
0:19.5	George Saunders is one of the booker prize and he's the recipient of a MacArthur Genius
0:23.0	grant.
0:24.0	He won the folio prize for his collection of short stories 10th of December, which includes
0:27.7	the short story Victory Lab.
0:29.8	In this episode, Susan and George talk about a passage from Victory Lab.
0:33.7	Susan, do you remember when you first read George Saunders?
0:36.8	I would say reading George Saunders for the first time is like taking LSD for the first
0:43.8	time.
0:44.8	I mean, things are familiar and yet they become very strange and unrecognizable in a way
0:51.3	that's completely engaging.
0:54.9	Nobody writes like George Saunders.
0:57.5	Having no one on the planet thinks like George Saunders.
1:01.2	Okay, here's Susan's interview with George Saunders.
1:05.3	So if you can identify where this story came from, did it explode out of an image of
1:15.6	phrase?
1:16.6	It actually came out of a sense of an advocacy because my work tends to be pretty dark.
1:21.9	And so I was at a point where I'm like maybe 50 or something and thinking, why can't I
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Hrishikesh Hirway, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Hrishikesh Hirway and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.