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Civilwarland6/23/2023 ![]() ![]() A similarly frightened worker in "The Wavemaker Falters'' is haunted by images from the past-he's visited by the ghost of the boy he chopped up by accident in the wave-making machine at the water park where he works. The rides and exhibits are in disrepair, attendance is low, and violent gangs assault the perimeter. ![]() ![]() The title piece introduces the author's screwed-up future the narrator is the cowardly flunkey of a theme- park owner who's trying to interest investors in his dying enterprise. Saunders's weird naturalism pulls you in with its chattiness and modest posture-no science-fictional bombast weighs down these skilled narratives. His is a dystopian vision of a "degraded cosmos,'' a future in which leisure and history combine in theme parks for the rich while the rest of humanity fights over scarce resources. A debut collection so friendly and casual in style (pieces first appeared in Harper's and The New Yorker) that it takes a while before you realize what a frightening world Saunders has created. ![]()
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