The novelist Simon Rich owes a debt to George Saunders (and in fact tips his hat to Saunders); Rich writes slightly absurd stories about life in America, but there is emotional insight running alongside the absurdity.
One of Rich's crowning achievements is "A Father's Watch," a script for "The Simpsons." In this story, a parenting expert arrives in Springfield and scolds the citizens for not having adequately praised the local children. From now on, there will be trophies for "breathing" and for "trying."
Lisa Simpson cries foul--because she feels she has *earned* all of her (old-school) trophies. Marge says, "Really? The soccer trophy?" And Lisa becomes evasive and irritable.
"I COULDN'T go to most of those games...because they conflicted with SNACKTIME...."
Elsewhere, Rich pokes fun at literary types. In his story "The Baby," a father gets upset when he realizes his new fetus is showing signs of artistic talent in utero. The father tries to sabotage the fetus by taking illicit looks at his unpublished manuscript, messing with the "pub date," giving all of his attention to his *own* epic/romantic work-in-progress. If you've ever felt slightly vain or ambitious, you'll appreciate this story.
I'm interested to see what Rich's newest book--now one week old--does for his reputation.
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