The humor in Pastoralia is pathetic and gallows, delivered with a deadpan tone that underscores the characters' struggles. The stories are both tender and depressing, reflecting the decade's anxieties.
Stewart O'Nan highlights the pathetic and gallows humor in Pastoralia, noting that it is delivered with a deadpan tone that adds to the stories' impact. They found the characters' struggles to be both tender and depressing, reflecting the anxieties of the decade in which the stories were written. O'Nan appreciates the way Saunders captures the absurdity of modern life, making the stories both hilarious and heartbreaking. They also noted that the stories are predictive of the decade that followed, adding a layer of prescience to the collection.
Quick quotes
It's a pathetic, almost gallows humor he uses, delivered (for his major characters' part) absolutely deadpan.
The six tales in Pastoralia are hilarious, tender, and depressingly predictive of the decade that came after their composition.
Saunders captures the absurdity of modern life, making the stories both hilarious and heartbreaking.