No matter how tempting you find it, I wouldn't suggest reading George Saunder's "Victory Lap" while standing up. Neither would I suggest reading it while riding the train, unless you trust the stranger sitting next to you to alert you when your stop is next. I would straight up admonish you for even thinking about continuing to read it as you cross the street ('Why are you mentioning it if you've never thought of it then, you hypocrite?' you might ask. I hold that that is irrelevant.)
These may all seem like generally bad ideas, so hopefully you weren't considering them in the first place. However, I'd like to argue that they are particularly untenable when in the midst of reading "Victory Lap", because its unique third-person, stream of conscious point of view consumes the reader's attention so thoroughly as to block out their own thoughts.
You might think that sounds outrageously far-fetched. And I agree that, yes, you are probably going to have your own reactionary thoughts to the unfolding plot in the midst of reading - but ultimately Saunders forces his readers to forgo their own mind processes in favor of figuring out what the heck is going on in the characters' minds. Especially so when you don't even know if you're in their minds in the first place! Saunders begins his story simply as the narrator: "Three days shy of her fifteenth birthday, Alison Pope paused at the top of the stairs." (pg. 3) But by the next sentence the reader is thrust into Alison's mind without the I in ICE (introduce, cite, explain) or even an 'I' to indicate Alison is expressing thoughts as she would in the first person. So starts the roller coaster ride of choppy, uncensored thoughts and alternating featured characters which never provides the reader a chance to catch their breath, much less mobilize their own 'personal imagination'. Nabokov would be proud.
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