Article: FICTION; How terribly, awfully funny; "In Persuasion Nation," a collection of mordant stories by George Saunders, reveals an absurd world all too close to our own.(ENTERTAINMENT)

Byline: Kristin Tillotson; Staff Writer

A George Saunders collection is best read piecemeal. Unless cut with more soothing fare, his stories are so imaginative, so wickedly diverting that the undertow takes you before you even feel a chill.

In Saunders' world, life is a reality television show, advertising slogans replace reasoning skills and mind-control devices are cheerfully absorbed as the way things are, and ought to be. Everything's hunky-dory, as long as the Dermafil[TM] camouflaging that drill hole at your hairline is packed in tight and you get your daily dose of Aurabon[TM] (a brand name certainly not meant to denigrate a certain addictive ...

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