George Saunders is a freaking weird author. Not going to lie. But, the story The Red Bow was very interesting to say the least.
The story is about this guy whose daughter is killed by a dog. His uncle goes nuts trying to kill all the dogs and cats and animals in the town. The weirdest part of this story is how eerie it becomes. The whole story starts to revolve around how the uncle starts using the daughter's red bow as propaganda to try to control the entire town.
Basically Uncle Matt is becoming a dictator in this story. The whole time, even the narrator seems cautious about what he is saying and he glosses over the fact that he isn't okay with what Uncle Matt is doing but he is just going with it. Uncle Matt plays the sympathy card the entire time and ends up forcing everyone to do what he wants.
Another thing that was weird about this story was how the red bow played a role in the story. The narrator's daughter was wearing a red bow when she was killed and he carries it around with him the entire time. Uncle Matt uses a fake bow as a tool to get people to support the cause. As his campaign grows, so does the bow. The bow gets larger, and redder, and the people get more and more brainwashed.
This whole story just seems like it is set in the twilight zone. It seems very resemblant of some eerie other world that isn't even real. The thing that makes it feel that way the most is the fact that the whole time the narrator seems very detached from what he is saying, as if he has no opinion on any of it or he doesn't agree with what is happening. He is just going along with it all.
This story I think was one of the least weird in this collection, but it still had a weird and eerie vibe.
From a narrative and content standpoint, this was definitely one of the "less weird" stories in the collection-- it can't hold a candle to the violent surrealism of "Brad Carrigan" or the paranoia of "Adams." However, the subject matter of this story was still one of the most interesting in the book and I think it's more "normal" narrative style made it easier to follow what was truly an intriguing narrative.
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