Description: "Mr. Saunders writes like the illegitimate offspring of Nathaniel West and Kurt Vonnegut, perhaps a distant relative of Mark Leyner and Steven Wright. . . . Mr. Saunders' satiric vision of America is dark, and demented; it is also ferocious and very funny".--"The New York Times".

Review: These six stories and a novella take place in a nightmarish version of America, filled with ominous theme parks and strip-mall businesses with names like GuiltMasters, Melvin's Pasta Lair, and Humane Raccoon Alternatives ("At noon another load of raccoons comes in and Claude takes them out back of the office and executes them with a tire iron... After burial comes prayer, a personal touch that never fails to irritate Tim, our ruthless CEO."). Saunders' voice is darkly satiric, mocking psychobabble and high-tech culture but sympathetic to life's losers. His protagonists are noble, in their own fashions, and often frighteningly naïve; the hero of the title story, for example, hires a psychotic killer to keep teen gangs from terrorizing tourists at the CivilWarLand theme park, and of course, pays the price. The novella "Bounty" is particularly memorable. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which Normals consider Flaweds (those with defects like claws for toes or vestigial t...

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