Vigil, by George Saunders: A Life, Examined...

Quirky and funny, profound and sad, and magnificently imaginative. I really loved it!

The mark of a truly magnificent writer is the ability to take a tried-and-true trope and give it fresh life. In his new novel, Vigil, George Saunders makes the Christmas Carol story of examining a life poorly lived feel fully original. Therefore, George Saunders is a magnificent writer.

Few would dispute that conclusion, is my guess. I certainly would not. And Vigil is magnificent, too. Vigil is a short novel about many things -- but perhaps most notably, it’s about coming to terms with mortality, looking back on your life, and simply asking yourself (or, in this case, being forced to answer by a liminal being tasked with ushering you into the afterlife), “How did I do?”

The fellow being forced to examine his life is an oil executive named KJ Boone who spent his career funding and spreading climate change misinformation. For Boone (a fictional stand-in for T. Boone Pickens?), who made money hand over fist selling pollution, protecting his company and his own wealth meant “refuting” all the evidence that how he spent his life’s work was innately harmful. But as he’s lying on his deathbed, and Jill “Doll” Blaine is summoned to usher him into the next life, he’s confronted with the harm, death, and destruction his company has caused, as well as the truth that, yes, climate change is in fact real. Will he repent?

So yes, Vigil is also Saunders’s take on an environmental (political?) novel.

Environmentalists are often derided by critics as acting with the same zeal and fervor as religious fundamentalists. But what if environmentalism being like religion is actually a good thing? If one of the “benefits” of religion is that it gives people hope, what could be more hopeful than the idea that the planet is still worth saving? What could be more beneficial than true faith in the beauty and dignity of Mother Earth?

And further, if environmentalism is a religion, can it also be a vehicle for death-bed conversions? And thus, to find the answer to this question is why we rip through this slim novel: Will this asshole Boone have a moment of clarity at the end? And if he has a moment of clarity at the end, will he, with his last breaths, try to make amends for all the damage he’s done? Or will he dig in further?

This novel calls to mind one of my favorite 2020-election era jokes. Two MAGAts die and, for some reason, get to go heaven. At the pearly gates, they encounter St. Peter, who asks them if they have any questions before entering paradise. One MAGAt glances at the other, and then says to St. Peter, “So, who reeaaaalllly won the 2020 election?” St. Peter, without hesitation, tells them: “Joe Biden.” Both MAGAt snort-laugh, and the other one says, “Wow, this conspiracy goes even higher than we thought.”

Vigil is also about the idea of being willing to change your mind when presented with new information. Human nature makes us not good at this. BUT, the better we learn to be at processing ideas and evidence that contradict what we previously thought, and adjusting our opinions accordingly, the better humans we can be.

So yes, there is a LOT going on in Vigil’s 172 pages. It’s quirky and funny, it’s profound and sad, and magnificently imaginative. I really loved it!