Read By: George Saunders
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George Saunders on his selection:
There are a few passages in literature that I go back to whenever I\\u2019m feeling out of touch with something I know to be true, namely that the whole point of life (even, and especially, during, a pandemic) is to get more loving, more tender.\\u202f As Tolstoy wrote, \\u201cMen think there are circumstances when one may deal with human beings without love. But there are no such circumstances\\u2026If you feel no love, sit still. Occupy yourself with things, with yourself, with anything you like, only not with men.\\u201d\\u202f One my favorite \\u201ctenderizing\\u201d passages is from Gogol\\u2019s great story, \\u201cThe Overcoat,\\u201d and it describes the life of one Akakii Akakievich, a lowly St. Petersburg functionary.
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