Vigil by George Saunders

Wednesday, Apr. 8, 2026--San Antonio

Vigil by George Saunders is one of several of his books I have read.  All have been interesting.  This is a short one about a Texas oligarch who is in his last dying day.  Born poor and with his ego suffering from being much shorter than most men, he has strived to build his fortune, to become known, respected, and consulted by world leaders, to become someone who never had to tolerate anyone he didn't want to tolerate and who took advantage of everyone he could.  God has sent Jill, the spirit of a young woman who died accidentally (blown up in her husband's vehicle which she had taken for the day instead of him), to comfort the oligarch and guide him to understanding the wrongs he has done and to apologize and receive absolution for them so that he can be elevated when he dies.  (The alternative is to live as a spirit on earth hoping that he can become worthy of being elevated over time--hopefully within centuries.)  The oligarch, however, is proud of his life and unwilling to admit and accept the wrongs he has done even as one spirit after another who is still confined to being an earth spirit comes to try to tell him about those wrongs.  He considers himself to be so important that his young woman spirit (communicating with him via their minds as he rests in a coma) is unworthy to even be near him and, like the other visiting spirits who he badmouths and curses, he does the same to her.  She has eased so many other (about 350) into elevation.  But this man is not going to be easy if at all possible to reach that point.  Those are the details, but the book is really about corporate greed, problems that develop because of capitalism, and environmental degragation that results from both of those.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.