He also supplies an “afterthought” to each story’s analysis, in which he shares a personal anecdote from his own life as a writer and reader. Saunders takes a different tack with each story, sometimes providing pulse-by-pulse dissections, other times analyzing the building of character or even how the excesses of a story somehow manage to contribute to rather than detract from its greatness. His love of literature is palpable, and his obvious qualities as an artful teacher are on full display. However, in Saunders’ hands it is anything but.

On the surface, this may seem a dry endeavor. (The actual syllabus at Syracuse contains about 30 stories.) The primary texts of the featured stories are included in the book, and after each one, Saunders launches into his “seminar,” providing insights-both his own and some gleaned from students over the years-into the structure and subtleties of these works. With infectious enthusiasm and generosity of spirit, Saunders delves into seven stories that he calls the “seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world”: three by Chekhov, two by Leo Tolstoy and one each from Ivan Turgenev and Gogol. Now, in a true gift to writers and serious readers, Saunders has adapted the core of this coveted class into a commodious new book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life.īeloved author George Saunders teaches the masters in his new book, sharing invaluable insights into classic Russian short stories. All of the bedrock principles of the form are on display.” For an emerging writer, Saunders believes, this process is akin to “a young composer studying Bach. There, in a semester-long class, he and his aspirants parse Russian short stories in translation to better understand how masters of the form such as Anton Chekhov and Nikolai Gogol built their work from the ground up.

But the acclaimed author has also taught for more than 20 years in Syracuse University’s prestigious MFA creative writing program. George Saunders won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo and was a National Book Award finalist for his short story collection Tenth of December.

A swim in a pond in the rain