The following podcast contains explicit language.

The Slate Audio Book Club is brought to you by Audible.com, a leading provider of spoken audio information and entertainment.

Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want.

Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audiblepodcast.com slash Slate ABC.

Welcome to the Slate Audio Book Club's discussion of 10th of December,

George Saunders' book of short stories.

I'm Dan Cois, the editor of the Slate Book Review,

and I'm here in Slate's DC Recording Studio.

And joining me from the New York City office is David Hagland,

the editor of Brawbeat.

Hi, David.

Hi, Dan.

And we are re-taping this podcast, in fact, two weeks after we did it the first time,

because it turned out that our studio equipment failed and our amazing observations were never recorded.

So this is sort of a situation worthy of a George Saunders story. We're trying to reach back and recreate the amazing experience that was that audio book club. And unfortunately, we're doing it without Megan or Roark, who joined us last time, but who cannot make it this time. So, David, you'll be Megan and David. Oh, good. That makes me sound smarter. Yeah. And I'll be Dan. Just let us know, you know, with like subtle gradations of pitch in your voice. I still went, no, no, we're not going to do that. Well, the good news is we will now have a totally fresh, different conversation where we occasionally refer back to a conversation that you, the listener, never heard. But anyways, thank you for joining me. And as in all of our audiobook clubs, we recommend that you listen to us after you read the book because we're going to be discussing many of the stories in 10th of December in great detail.

10th of December collects brand new stories by George Saunders. He's a MacArthur Genius Grant winner. He's a much beloved short story writer. The book became a somewhat unexpected bestseller recently this spring.

It's the subject of a great deal of adoring media coverage, including a New York Times

magazine profile that called it the best book you'll read this year. Now, that's a little

unexpected because Saunders' writing has always been a little bit on the weird and I thought

on commercial side. He writes short stories,

for starters, which typically traditionally don't sell. And he writes in a gently postmodern

vein. He's infatuated with the language and mores of corporate brand in America. Many of his

...