How much is it a matter of personal taste, and how much of actual quality, that my favourites on this go-around - "Victory Lap", "Puppy", "Home", "Tenth of December" - are all free, or near enough to, of the irreal aspects that are such a distinctive aspect of Saunders' writing? Especially when you add in that the one that got me most strongly this time, the title story, is also unusual in that none of its major characters are particularly small minded or blameworthily selfish.
Third time reading this as a collection (first, second), not counting the many encounters with individual stories outside that.
