New Yorker Fiction Review #303: "Thursday" by George Saunders

Review of the short story from the June 12, 2023 issue of The New Yorker...

If you are in any way interested in contemporary literature, you know that when a George Saunders short story pops up in The New Yorker, you are going to stop and read it. No questions asked. Saunders is, hands down, one of the giants of American letters and perhaps the greatest living writer of short stories English language.

While I would not put "Thursday" among his most notable efforts, I would say that it rewards the reader's 20-30 minute sojourn into the world of the story. In other words, if you get the chance, read this. 

The story is about Gerard, an elderly man who visits a sort of "memory implantation clinic" a là Total Recall, in which you can go back and relive your childhood memories for 15-20 minutes at a time and they will seem as vivid as they did 50 years ago or whatever.

Sounds great, right? The problem is when Gerard goes back into his childhood memories, only to reemerge into real life and realize...he had just relived someone else's childhood.

The rest of the story, borrowing a little bit from Total Recall as well as Inception, centers in why this happened and what Gerard makes of it all. The answer is somewhat more mundane than you might think, but still makes for a good tale.

What I found most memorable -- and most human (probably Saunders at his best) -- was Gerard's inner monologue, scanning back through his memories, reviewing various girlfriends and the faults he found with each that prevented him from marrying them and hence, explaining (at least partly) why he is single into his old age and looking to revisit his memories with the help of the clinic.