Vigil A Novel

He also has a new novel out this month called Vigil, about a cantankerous oil tycoon on his deathbed.

When I started reading Vigil, the new novel, and there were more figures from the afterlife sort of shepherding someone along, I thought he's doing angels again.

But reading his new novel, Vigil, which is about an oil tycoon on his deathbed being visited by angels and people from his past trying to get him to reassess his own life, I began to realize that Saunders is more interested in something else now. Not kindness, but the question of judgment.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you for making me who I was, and not some little squirming, powerless nincompoop. Thank you for making me unique, one of a kind, incomparable, victorious.

And in it, there's a very fundamental tension between the side of Saunders that does not want to judge. It wants to explain who we are in terms of the conditions we came from, which is a stance of very deep compassion. And the side of him that thinks judgment is necessary, that sin needs to be recognized, and that you cannot have truth if you are not willing to open up to ideas of fundamental wrongdoing.

He says, Thank you, Lord. Thank you for making me who I was, and not some little squirming, powerless nincompoop. Thank you for making me unique, one of a kind, incomparable, victorious. Tell me about that prayer.

This is a book about sin and judgment. It's about free will and whether or not we have it.

Writer George Saunders is a Buddhist whose practice informs his work, most notably his 2017 novel Lincoln and the Bardo, which won the Booker Prize. Saunders' new novel, Vigil, also explores the Buddhist concept of the Bardo.

Vigil is a briefer and bumpier return visit back to the Bardo. Instead of the mythic grief of Abraham Lincoln, here we have the passing of one somewhat mundane, if contemptible, human being.

Maureen Corrigan is a professor of literature at Georgetown University. She reviewed Vigil by George Saunders.

George Saunders' new novel, Vigil, also explores the Buddhist concept of the Bardo.

Vigil is a briefer and bumpier return visit back to the Bardo. Instead of the mythic grief of Abraham Lincoln, here we have the passing of one somewhat mundane, if contemptible, human being. K.J. Boone was, and for a few more hours still is, an oil company CEO.

This week, George has a new novel out titled Vigil.

In a nutshell, we find ourselves at the bedside of somebody who I imagine to be kind of a 1998 to 2000 era oil executive. The last night of his life, the last hours of his life.

The first half of my interview focuses largely on visual. And in the second half, we broaden the conversation, hearing George's takes on AI, why literature matters, and even get to talk about games to get writing as a beginner.

This week, George has a new novel out titled Vigil.