Reviews round-up
Vigil
by George Saunders
2 of 9 critics positive
11 reviews: 2 positives, 5 mixed, 2 pans; 2 not stating a verdict in public
What the critics said
“are sci-fi treats”
Book review: George Saunders’s Vigil and Matthew Kressel’s The Rainseekers are sci-fi treats
“a tender morality tale”
George Saunders’s sympathy for the devil
“brief, bumpy return to the Bardo”
'Vigil' review: George Saunders' brief, bumpy return to the Bardo
“is it too little too late?”
George Saunders: Vigil review – afterlife in oil
“even if his latest novel reveals its pitfalls”
George Saunders Brings Morality Back to Fiction
“they feel like a gimmick”
Vigil by George Saunders review – will a world-wrecking oil tycoon repent?
“Heavy Helping of Virtue”
George Saunders Serves a Heavy Helping of Virtue in a New Novel
“defective internal logic, uncontrolled tone, bizarreness for its own sake”
Adam Mars-Jones · Another Ilk: George Saunders’s ‘Vigil’
“Vigil falls flat”
A knock-off Pynchon without the punchline: George Saunders’ Vigil falls flat
Climate and Punishment | Gabriel Winslow-Yost
Verdicts are read from each outlet's own headline and summary; quotes are their words, credited and linked. Where a paywalled summary does not give the critic's view, we say so rather than guess. How it works.
