---
title: "Tenth of December by George Saunders"
description: "Takeaway: Another short story collection I didn't like, surprise! Anyone that has read my blog regularly over the past year or so will not be surprised that I didn't like another collection of short s..."
url: https://bookwi.se/tenth-of-december/
date: 2014-08-28
modified: 2026-07-27
author: "Adam Shields"
categories: ["Book Reviews"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Tenth of December by George Saunders

![](https://bookwi.se/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/cover-37962.jpg)**Takeaway: Another short story collection I didn’t like, surprise!**

Anyone that has read my blog regularly over the past year or so will not be surprised that I didn’t like another collection of short stories.  That makes me 0.5 of 5 this year.  And it is not that the collections were poorly reviewed or by bad writers.  The collections I have read over the last year were by [PJ Wodehouse](https://bookwi.se/man-two-left-feet-stories-pg-wodehouse/), [GK Chesterton](https://bookwi.se/man-knew-much-gk-chesterton/), [Dorothy Sayers](https://bookwi.se/lord-peter-views-the-body/), and [Flannery O’Connor](https://bookwi.se/a-good-man-is-hard-to-find/) and now George Saunders.  (Technically the Flannery O’Connor was a few days over a year ago.  And it was definitely the one I liked the best of the five.)

Given my general dislike of short stories you as reader are probably tired of me posting about not liking them.  But I keep wanting to read books that are well reviewed and generally loved.  [Karen Swallow Prior gave Tenth of December very good review at Books and Culture.](http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/webexclusives/2013/september/tenth-of-december.html) And it one the 10 best books by New York Times Book Review as well as winning some other awards.

This is another collection of short stories that I did not finish.  It was a library book (I was not fool enough to actually buy a collection of short stories given my history.)  And I read the first four straight through.  Then I read the fifth a couple days later.  And then I just didn’t want to pick it up again.  The stories were just weird.

Maybe my problem is that I am just not enough interested in literary fiction or I am too dense to get higher meanings.  But what I love about reading is not the bizarre or thickly textured literary work.  It is beautiful words and rich characters.

So what I generally don’t like about short stories (lack of character development and usually trying to make some point) seemed to be extra present here.

I was also not prepared for the language and sex.  As normal, with any fiction I try to avoid actually knowing too much about the story before I read it.  And it is not that I am against language or sex in books. I have really enjoyed many books with sex and/or language.  But this seemed more like the language and sex was used for shock not purpose.

So yes, I gave up.  This is the second review this week that I am reporting I gave up on.  And the other one was a short story collection.  So yeah.  No more short story collections for a while.  A long while.

**Tenth of December Purchase Links:[Paperback](http://www.amazon.com/Tenth-December-Stories-George-Saunders/dp/0812984250/), [Kindle Edition](http://www.amazon.com/Tenth-December-George-Saunders-ebook/dp/B008LMB4C2/), [Audible.com Audiobook](http://www.amazon.com/Tenth-of-December-Stories/dp/B00AU7Y1BW/)**

***Related articles***

- [![](https://bookwi.se/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/293489828_80_80.jpg)](https://bookwi.se/man-knew-much-gk-chesterton/)[The Man Who Knew Too Much by GK Chesterton (Bookwi.se Review)](https://bookwi.se/man-knew-much-gk-chesterton/)
- [![](https://bookwi.se/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/201799117_80_80.jpg)](http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/webexclusives/2013/september/tenth-of-december.html)[Tenth of December (Books and Culture Review)](http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/webexclusives/2013/september/tenth-of-december.html)