The empathy divide
George Saunders’ Vigil, reviewed
How do you extend empathy to people incapable of compassion? How do you seek to understand someone who refuses to understand you? Are some people honestly just rotten to their core? Are we wasting our time believing they are capable of change?
George Saunders contemplates these conundrums in his newest offering, Vigil.
When the New York Times says THREE of your books (Pastoralia, Tenth of December, and Lincoln in the Bardo) are in the top 100 books of the century so far, there’s going to be a lot of buzz about the next thing you write. George Saunders shrugs off the pressure, adding a new story to the canon of books that imagine the day of someone’s death, this time refracted through the lens of the climate crisis.
Saunders stands confidently alongside the greats, like Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with a story that is at once modern in its concerns and timeless in its sensibilities.
Vigil introduces a rich and diverse cast of characters, but at its core are Jill “Doll” Blaine, KJ Boone, and The Frenchman.
KJ Boone is a pretty awful guy… to say the very least. An oil tycoon and climate change denier, he is “rude, abrupt, condescending, insulting.” He seems totally incapable – even devoid – of empathy, regardless of being confronted by the ghosts of people he caused great suffering to. Unlike Scrooge, he can’t even be scared into remorse. He speaks with finality – “period,” “full stop” – when he asserts himself, leaving no room for debate. “You stand at the threshold of the next world, dear friend, victorious and unrebuked,” he is told – and, frankly, he doesn’t care.
In particular, he is dismissive of Jill “Doll” Blaine, a dead woman who has come to comfort him on his last day of life, before whisking him away to the afterlife. You’d think KJ Boone might at least yield to her, but no. He calls her “stupid bitch” and “satan.” Charmer.
