Pastoralia

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Pastoralia is a collection of short stories by George Saunders. It’s his second full-length collection and was published in June 2000 in the United States by Riverhead Books. The book has 208 pages. Many stories first appeared in The New Yorker, and several later appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories collections.

Reception: The collection received very positive reviews. It was named the fifth-greatest book of the 2000s by The Millions and was a New York Times Notable Book in 2001. Critics praised Saunders for capturing the disorders of modern life in fiction, with a writing style that is deadpan, realist, and postmodern. The prose is noted for blending high and low culture. Nylon highlighted the deadpan delivery and satirical view of contemporary America, comparing Saunders to 20th-century realists like Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut. Entertainment Weekly ranked Pastoralia 63rd on its list of top 100 works of literature since 1983, and The A.V. Club named it one of the ten best short story collections of the 2000s.