These are golden times for American satirists. After years of relentless brilliance, George Saunders finally seems to have crossed into the mainstream with his absurdist short-story collection ¡°Tenth of December.¡± Now Sam Lipsyte seems to be making his move, backing up his smart and very funny 2010 novel ¡°The Ask¡± with his own splashy compilation of short fiction, ¡°The Fun Parts.¡±
Lipsyte is a more conventional writer than Saunders, but then again, who isn¡¯t? Certainly the characters who populate his stories are more recognizable and the scenes often unfold in Manhattan and New Jersey, or a twisted version of those places ¡ª ¡°Lipsyteland.¡± Lipsyte is most commonly praised for his hilarious flights of fancy, but he is also a perceptive observer, capable of impaling a lifestyle with one sparse aside.
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