A reader writes:
A George Saunders story ("Home") that recently appeared in The New Yorker is about a soldier who recently returned from an unnamed war in the Middle East. In classic, absurd Saunders style, a motif in the story is that the soldier keeps getting thanked for his service. Here is an example scene (the soldier's mother is being evicted):
“This is how you treat the family of a hero?” Harris said. “He’s over there fighting and you’re over here abusing his mother?”
“Friend, excuse me, I’m not abusing,” the man said. “This is evicting. If she’d paid her rent and I was evicting, that would be abusing.”
“And here I work for a beeping church!” Ma shouted.
The man, though low-slung and fat, was admirably bold. He went inside the house and came out carrying the TV with a bored look on his face, like it was his TV and he preferred it in the yard.
“No,” I said.
“I appreciate your service,” he said.
The Dish 