George Saunders on Creating His Own Version of the Afterlife
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
In this revealing interview, National Book Critics Circle Medal winner George Saunders discusses his new novel Vigil, which explores the last night in the life of K.J. Boone, an octogenarian oil baron who spent decades denying climate change. The novel features a ghost narrator, Jill “Doll” Blaine, who died in the 1970s and now exists in a spectral realm where she attempts to comfort the dying man during his final hours.
Saunders reveals his unique improvisational writing process, which involves countless revisions and responding to what characters reveal through their voices. He explains how Vigil builds upon his Booker Prize-winning Lincoln in the Bardo, addressing fundamental questions about mortality, redemption, and whether someone entrenched in harmful patterns can achieve transformation at life’s end. The interview illuminates how literary precedents like Joyce’s “The Dead” and Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilych” informed his approach to this deathbed reckoning narrative.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Improvisation Drives Creation
Saunders writes by trying different voices and responding to what characters reveal, rather than planning narrative arcs in advance.
Dual-Register Ghost Narrator
Jill Blaine speaks in two voices—her earthly Indiana register and an elevated eternal voice—reflecting her struggle between mortality and transcendence.
Iterative Revision as Method
Saunders reads through his manuscript two or three times per session for months, making incremental adjustments that compound into profound transformations.
Climate Denial Protagonist
The novel centers on K.J. Boone, an oil baron who denied climate change for decades, now facing his final reckoning.
Evolution from Lincoln in the Bardo
While Lincoln explored loving the conditional, Vigil questions whether attachment to self creates the illusion of loss and asks about accountability.
World-Building Through Editing
The novel’s afterlife rules emerge organically through revision, as Saunders commits to phrases like “whisking” and builds a consistent spectral world.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
The Creative Process Behind Moral Fiction
This interview reveals how George Saunders’ improvisational writing method—rooted in iterative revision and attention to character voice—enables him to explore profound moral questions about redemption, mortality, and accountability without predetermined answers. His process demonstrates that literary craft and philosophical inquiry are inseparable, as technical choices about narrative voice and structure directly shape the ethical dimensions of his work.
Purpose
To Demystify Literary Craftsmanship
Ciabattari aims to illuminate the working methods of one of contemporary literature’s most celebrated writers, making his seemingly magical fiction-making process accessible to readers and aspiring writers. By drawing specific connections between Vigil and literary precedents while examining Saunders’ revision techniques, the interview serves both as literary criticism and as practical instruction in the craft of fiction.
Structure
Contextual Introduction → Craft-Focused Inquiry → Thematic Exploration
The interview opens by establishing the novel’s premise and reading event, then progresses through questions about specific craft elements (voice, world-building, revision) before expanding to broader considerations of literary influence and philosophical themes. This movement from concrete to abstract mirrors how Saunders himself works—building grand ideas from minute attention to sentence-level choices.
Tone
Respectfully Inquisitive & Critically Appreciative
Ciabattari balances admiration with substantive inquiry, asking questions that reveal genuine engagement with both Vigil and Saunders’ broader body of work. The tone is conversational yet intellectually rigorous, creating space for Saunders to provide detailed explanations without feeling pressured to defend his choices.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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Just coming into existence; beginning to develop or show signs of future potential; emerging in an early form.
“It was just nascent in the way she talked and then, through all that revising, I gradually became aware of it.”
Having or showing sensitive insight, understanding, or intuition; able to notice and understand things that are not obvious to others.
“That’s a very perceptive question (and that was a very perceptive and generous review, thank you for it).”
Causing someone to lose their sense of direction, position, or understanding; confusing or bewildering in a way that destabilizes expectations.
“Your opening is disorienting: ‘What a lovely home I found myself plummeting toward…'”
An exclamation expressing surprise, alarm, or dismay; a mild oath used to convey astonishment or concern about something difficult.
“It is (as I can feel even as I reread the above, egads) an intense, anxiety-producing procedure.”
The selective removal or elimination of items from a larger group; in writing, the process of cutting unwanted or unnecessary material.
“The text would get gradually longer (with occasional radical cullings, so then it would get much shorter).”
Showing no regret or remorse for one’s actions or beliefs; stubbornly refusing to acknowledge wrongdoing or feel guilt about past behavior.
“Vigil seems to give you a wide canvas in which to explore that theme…an unrepentant character who revels in being ‘cock of the walk.'”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to the article, George Saunders begins writing with a detailed outline that maps out the entire plot before he writes a single sentence.
2What inspired Saunders to begin writing Vigil in July 2023?
3Which sentence best captures Saunders’ view of the writer’s ultimate responsibility?
4Evaluate the following statements about Jill “Doll” Blaine’s character:
She speaks in two distinct registers—one reflecting her earthly Indiana life and one reflecting her eternal existence.
Her character developed from Saunders combining two originally separate narrator voices into one.
She died in a car accident in Stanley, Indiana, in the late 1980s.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5Based on Saunders’ description of his revision process, what can we infer about his relationship to control in writing?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Saunders reads his manuscript from the beginning and reacts in real-time to what’s there—sensing what readers might wonder about or what needs clarification. This improvisation happens through countless reading sessions, two or three times per session, for months. He describes it as responding to the text rather than executing a plan, allowing discoveries his conscious mind would never make and gradually polishing through repeated passes.
Saunders considers Vigil ‘in some ways, a better book—more compressed, and with a more difficult question at the core.’ While Lincoln explored conditional love and featured dead people who didn’t know they were dead, Vigil features spirits who know they’re dead but remain busy with unfinished tasks. Lincoln asked ‘What are we supposed to do when we seem made to love, and yet everything we love is conditional?’ Vigil asks whether attachment to self creates the illusion of loss and explores free will, compassion, and accountability.
Saunders was informed by deathbed and transformation narratives including Joyce’s “The Dead,” Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilych,” and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. These precedents sit ‘in a sort of hopper above his head,’ informing what a novel should do. He used awareness of these works to navigate new territory—knowing Scrooge experienced total reclamation helped him watch for ways such resolution might be false for his character, K.J. Boone.
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This article is rated Intermediate because it requires familiarity with literary terminology (register, iterative revision, improvisation) and discusses abstract concepts about the creative process. While the conversational interview format makes it accessible, readers benefit from some background in literature or writing to fully appreciate Saunders’ explanations of craft techniques. The vocabulary includes both common and specialized terms, and understanding requires tracking complex ideas about narrative construction across multiple responses.
Ciabattari, former National Book Critics Circle president, brings deep knowledge of Saunders’ previous work to this conversation, enabling her to ask informed questions that connect Vigil to his broader literary project. Her questions about specific craft elements (voice development, world-building, revision) combined with inquiries about literary influences demonstrate the kind of engaged reading that helps writers articulate their process. The interview serves both as literary criticism and practical instruction in fiction writing.
The Ultimate Reading Course covers 9 RC question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Multi-Statement T/F, Text Highlight, Fill in the Blanks, Matching, Sequencing, Error Spotting, and Short Answer. This comprehensive coverage prepares you for any reading comprehension format you might encounter.
