“The Imaginarium of Barber Mickey”

Mickey, the barber, is a daydreamer. We know this right away. He is a middle-aged man who owns a small business, lives with his mother, and never married or had a family. His thoughts begin to ramble as he sits on the front steps of his barbershop. As he sits there, drinking his coffee, he is people watching. But not just people watching, he is “ogling” every woman that passes by. He studies all women – young, old, pregnant, even pictures of women posted on buses that drive buy. He studies their features and occasionally picks one woman to think about. In the opening scene, it is “Miss Hacianda”. She is a woman walking by, whom he will likely never meet. But still, he envisions a bizarre alternative reality where he approaches her, charms her, and they go on to have an affair in a Mexican hut. He seems to pick random strangers out and recast their roles to fit his own warped imagined storyline.

The barber is keenly focused on the flaws of others. He’s had a few girlfriends, but always manages to find something wrong with them. Ellen was one of these girlfriends. She was “regal looking” and his mother loved her. The problem? She was too tall and too “thin-skinned” when he mocked her height. This happened with every girl – there was always some imperfection that led him to end relationships. But he was not perfect either. He was getting older, lived with his mother, his hair was thinning, and he was no longer a young man. Oh, and he had no toes. This was his inescapable insecurity.

The story picks up when he attends a meeting at the Driving School. His daydreams ensue when he sits across the table from a very pretty girl. He admires her and his imagination begins to run wild. Based on his description, she is very beautiful and exotic looking. He’s almost sure she is the prettiest girl he has ever seen, especially compared to the other women attending the meeting. She catches him staring at her – and she smiles at him. She shows interest, which is not the typical reaction he gets from women. Then – the meeting breaks and everyone gets up. He sees that she is a “big” girl and instantly loses interest, despite their initial reciprocation of affection.

Although he initially writes her off – he still imagines her. He imagines convincing her to lose weight. He would kindly let her know about her flaws, and she would be so grateful to him for pointing them out. She would go to the gym each day to make the necessary changes that he so kindly pointed out to her and eventually she would match his idea of perfection. It’s almost painful to know that this is his internal dialogue as he is approaching her for their first date. She looks hopeful and cheerful, unaware of his selfish and twisted thoughts.

Saunders has a gift for bringing out the essence of a character in just a few pages, its hard to image how he comes up with this stuff. In the video below, he offers a glimpse into his background with writing and his writing process:

“Cody’s Last Firpo”

Image Source: http://www.autotelic.info/blog/2015/4/22/oils-420001-quote-imagination-is-everything

The End of Firpo in the World embodies imagination. We see the world through Cody’s thoughts. As he takes us around his neighborhood, his inner dialogue is describing his surroundings and his feelings towards them. Instead of identifying his neighbors by names, he assigns certain attributes as sources of recognition. For example, “the house where the dead guy had rotted for five days.” (Saunders) His thoughts bounce back and forth between reality and his own imagination. We learn that Cody’s sworn enemies are the Dalmeyers. Based on his view, they are the annoyingly perfect family on the block. He’s mad that he wears off-brand sneakers from Payless, while the Dalmeyer kids where Nikes with heels that light up. They have the best sports equipment and loving parents. The Dalmeyer kids are cruel. They tease him and make fun of him, make him feel worthless. In return – Cody fantasizes amount sticking a wooden lozenge in their hose. He hopes when they try to turn on the hose, it will mysteriously explode. The family will show the hose to scientists, looking for an explanation of this miraculous phenomenon. Then, it will be revealed that he is a genius – a real Albert Einstein. That will show them.

Cody’s inner dialogue is negative and spiteful. He is an insecure kid, nervous to attend junior high. On top of it, he doesn’t seem to get much support from his Mom or Daryl, her jerky boyfriend. When he does something bad or dorky, Daryl calls this his “firpo.” He has a wild imagination, which Saunders captures through endless run-on sentences, nonsensical ideas and random questions. We are all guilty of having an inner dialogue that gets particularly chatty when we are feeling embarrassed or upset. However, Cody’s is quite extreme – his wheels are constantly turning. He’s always thinking about bad things he’s done, or ways he can cause trouble.

He turns the corner on his bike, on his way to execute his genius plan to blow up the Dalmeyer’s hose. He’s convinced that if he can just pull this off, it will be the end of firpo in the world. No more bad or dorky moments if he can do this one epically cool thing. The imaginary announcers in the willow tree are applauding his efforts. Just then – a car hits him. He and the bike go flying, making impact with an oak tree. His inner dialogue continues with negative thoughts, as he lays there in the grass, seemingly unaware that he is dying. Daryl will be mad that he ruined a perfectly good bike. He is sorry to his mom for being such a “firpo son.” Despite his negativity and spiteful rage, it’s impossible to not feel sorry for Cody. Even in his dying thoughts, he feels no love from the people who should care the most about him – his mom and father figure.

“Weekend at Aunt Bernie’s”

This story follows a cluster of odd characters who are living together in a dangerous apartment complex nonsensically called “Sea Oak”. As the narrator points out, “At Sea Oak, there is no sea and no oak, just a hundred subsidized apartments and a rearview of FedEx.” (Saunders, 93) Our narrator works as a male stripper at a local restaurant, “Joysticks,” and struggles to walk away with $40 per night. But he is lucky – he graduated from high school and has his diploma. His two sisters, each with a son of their own, are studying to get their GEDs in between commercials of trashy TV shows. They bicker constantly and don’t have jobs. Their lack of education is undeniable as they exchange jarring snaps back and forth at each other.

The three siblings live together in the apartment with Aunt Bernie. She is their mother’s sister who never made much of her own life. She went out of her way to please her father and take care of the family, but upon his death he left the family penniless. She never had a date or a meaningful job. She had never even been on a plane. Bernie worked at DrugTown as a greeter (she had been demoted to this position from Cashier). But our narrator explains, “she’s not bitter. Sometimes she’s so not bitter it gets on my nerves.” (95) Aunt Bernie is very pleasant. She never seems to complain no matter how bad things get. Her go-to phrases include “things could be worse,” or “we should be thankful for what we do have.” So the narrator, Aunt Bernie, and sisters, Min and Jade and their two sons live together under one roof, trying to get by day-by-day. Then, things get very weird.

Aunt Bernie dies tragically. She is literally “scared to death.” There is a break in at the apartment, and her body is found on the couch with a shocked expression on her face. The narrator and his sisters reflect on her sad, stagnant life as they plan the funeral. They decide to honor her by buying a very expensive casket, which they’ll have to pay for month by month. They attend the funeral. While they struggle to come up with meaningful comments about Bernie’s life, there is a collective understanding of what she meant to them. She didn’t accomplish much, but she was the glue that held the family together in a lot of ways. They all agree she will be missed. Life goes on.

Just when the reader thinks the story is winding down, out of nowhere there is a reincarnation scene. Bernie comes back from the dead. She crawls out of the very expensive casket, digs through the dirt and makes it back to the Sea Oak apartment to spook her family. She is enraged. She has bottled up her bitterness for years – and that bottle is about to explode. She sits in a rocking chair, her body decaying as she barks orders at her family. She wants more from them – she wants them to succeed and pull themselves out of poverty.

This short story led me to feel nearly every emotion – happy, confused, sad, disgusted, angry, and thankful etc. The dialogue was hilarious, and this cast of characters living together was a comical scene. But as the story went on, things got darker. As I’ve come to expect from George Saunders, there is a dark satirical twist to this story. The backdrop of the story is American poverty. The characters lack the education and opportunity to gain enough momentum to move to a safer area. The thought of these two young children growing up with mothers who lack any sort of education is unsettling. The cycle of poverty is likely to continue. Education seems to be the key to turning this cycle around. This realization led me to walk away from this story with an overall feeling of thankfulness for the opportunities I have been blessed with.

“Yaniky Insanity”

George Saunder’s Winky, takes place at a self-help seminar held in the Hyatt hotel. Neil Yaniky attends, hoping he will leave with the strength he needs to tell his sister to move out. His sister, Winky, appears to be the source of all of his problems. She is extremely religious, crazy looking and completely caught up in her own simple mind. She completely ruined his date with Beverly. If he could just get rid of Winky, Neil’s life would be perfect. He could find a wife and finally achieve success. All he needs is the inspiration to do it – kick her out once and for all. That’s where Tom Rodger’s seminar comes in.

Tom is the founder of the Seminars. He charismatically prompts the crowd of people wearing hats labeled “Whiny”, Self-Absorbed”, “Insecure”, and “Blames her fat on others” to shout the Donald Trump-esque mantra, “Now Is the Time for Me to Win!”. He enlightens the crowd with his advice, delivered in the form of a simple metaphor. Oatmeal is the first concept – it “represents your soul in its pure state. Your soul on the day you were born. You were perfect. You were happy. You were good.” (Saunders, 71) Concept number two is crap. According to Tom, the key to happiness is finding out who or what is “crapping in your oatmeal”, and simply eliminating the source of the crap. Neil is able to get a private session with Tom, where he reveals that Winky is his “crap”. After a thorough coaching from Tom, Neil leaves inspired with a customized mantra, “Now is the Time for Me to Win! Out you Go! Out you Go!” (Saunders, 78)

Winky is simultaneously dark and funny. Saunder’s perfectly captures the cheesy and hokey nature of self-help conferences, which typically proclaim that all of one’s life problems can be solved with “just one simple trick”. While it can often be comforting to hear this simplistic view towards problem solving, our lives and relationships with others are dynamic and complex. Saunder’s portrays this in his story, which begins at the conference. Neil is inspired and “stoked”, ready to tell his sister off with the simple advice received from Tom Rodgers. Basically, the key to finding happiness for yourself is eliminating the people in your life who create inconveniences. But then, Saunder’s gets into the back-story. The reader is exposed to flashbacks from Neil and Winky’s dull, but somewhat pleasant childhood, and how Winky came to live with Neil in the first place. It is clear that while Winky seems to have mental health issues and can get on Neil’s nerves, they grew up together and have a mutually need for each other. As a result of this revelation, Neil can’t go through with kicking her out. The story ends with a very relatable scene. Neil wants to speak up and get angry and Winky. Instead, he holds his tongue and walks away, “calling her terrible names under his breath.” (Saunders, 88)

“So Easy, a Caveman Can Do It”

After the first few pages, I wasn’t quite sure what was going on or what to think. I chose to read the first short story of a six-piece collection from George Saunders’ Pastoralia. This short story, titled the same as the entire compilation, is a satirical tale, which takes place in an alternate reality. It follows the experiences of an unnamed man who works along side his female colleague in a caveman re-enactment exhibit within an unusual amusement park that is struggling economically. The man narrates the story, walking the reader through his mundane day-to-day routine. His task is fairly simple – he can’t speak English in the cave and he must do his best to act like an authentic caveman for the very few amusement park goers who “pop their heads in.” In return, the manager of the park, Marty, sporadically drops off a goat for food through a slot in the fake cave. The unnamed man is very committed to his work and is regarded by Marty as stellar employee. However, his cavewoman colleague, Janet, often breaks the rules. She speaks English, smokes cigarettes, and interacts with the patrons of the park. Overall, she is not very cavelady-like. Although the man and Janet get along fine and he often covers for her despite her flaws, things get interesting when the anxious management threatens downsizing.

While the premise of this story appears bizarre, it is strangely relatable both on a personal and societal level. Each character is trying their best to do their job and support their families, while also dealing with impossibly difficult situations in their home lives. The unnamed man repeats his mantra, “I’m Thinking Positive/Saying Positive” (Saunders, 1), to keep his emotions at bay. The bills keep piling up, and making ends meet grows more and more difficult as patronage at the park plummets. The man’s child is very sick with an undiagnosed disease, Janet’s mother is dying and her son relapsed after a stint in rehab, and Marty can no longer afford to keep the park going or send his son to a prestigious boarding school. These are very real struggles that many Americans face.

Just like in our own society, the personal and family values of the characters interfere with their work life. The unnamed man constantly gets Janet off the hook by giving her positive reviews in the evaluation, however, as his son’s health continues to deteriorate, he takes action and decides to be honest in the evaluation in order to provide himself with more job security. When times get tough and his manager confronts him about his dishonest reviews, the narrator says: “I think of Nelson. His wispy hair and crooked nose. When I thank him for bravely taking all his medications he always rests his head on my shoulder and says, No problem”(Saunders, 58). Just like those in our society do everyday, the man did what he had to for his family. Although this story is very strange and difficult to relate to at first, it really depicts a society that is no different from our own American capitalism when it comes to core values.

 

If you can’t get enough of Pastoralia, George Saunders does an entertaining reading in the video below: