Tenth of December by George Saunders

Lots of class anxiety.

Peppy face of bureaucratic inhumanity.

Flights of fancy as escape from dismal reality. Despite chatty, ebullient style, characters' dreams and suffering taken seriously.

Sanguine American self-delusion. Chipper.

Superficial similarities to David Sedaris, but good.

Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin