Q&A with George Saunders, Author of February Indie Next List Top Pick “Vigil”

Bookselling This Week: A lot of readers are comparing Vigil to Lincoln in the Bardo, as they’re seeing similar themes of life and death between the two titles. How did the experience of writing Vigil differ for you from your previous works?

George Saunders: It was more of a wrestling match, I’d say. I got stuck a lot and the book seemed to be quietly figuring out what it wanted to be, while denying me that information. So, in the end, I had to be really patient and, as they say, “trust the process.” It was almost as if the book was saying to me, “Look, I want to be different and more challenging and ornery. Will you just sit over there, being stuck and frustrated, while I figure out who I am?”

BTW: What was the most challenging part of creating a book like this? Was it one of the big ideas in the book like the inevitability of death, climate change, the rippling effect of our actions? Or a more mundane aspect like creating smooth transition between these characters’ streams of consciousness?

GS: It was the order of events, to be honest.

Fairly early on, I had six or seven vignettes mostly written, but I had a hard time figuring out the ordering. One had to lead to the next and there had to be causation and for some reason it was hard for me to see the best order, until I did. (Which I did by finally getting impatient and demanding they choose an order, and assuaging myself by saying I’d fix as needed.)

BTW: Though this story is tackling heavier ideas, it’s interspersed with several surreal sillier moments that add balance to the story but also serve as a reminder that death does not have to be a great and terrifying idea. Do you want to talk a little about this or about achieving that balance?

GS: Part of the challenge of a book like this is that you don’t want to be felt to be saying that you know what death is like. Or that death is some orderly thing that we can master in advance. Or, for that matter, that life is subject to simple reduction — it is really such a disorderly affair, and our little, inadequate minds are always thinking they’ve got it right, and then reality laughs at that and throws a curveball….and it hurts/disappoints/surprises. So, I think that absurdity and wild humor in a book can serve to just remind us of that — that what we perceive as order is just the temporary appearance of order. The real nature of the universe is hilarity. And absurdity, in a work of art, is like light that comes in through the gaps in the walls of a building that is falling apart, to remind us that the house is a temporary construct.

BTW: We always like to bring these interviews back around to books and indie bookstores. Would you tell us a little about the role that books and indie bookstores have played in your life?

GS: I don’t think I’d have a career if not for indie bookstores — they gave me so much support in those early days, especially through employee recommendations and the chance to come to the store and read. I think the curation aspect is so vital — to have someone who loves books and knows them and is alert to related titles a given customer might like. It’s concierge guidance, really, and in the most important aspect of a person’s life, i.e., how they go about growing.