Fox 8 A Story

Gerade sprachlich im Original sehr schön gemacht, Saunders weiß wie man sprachlich experimentiert und ungewöhnliche Erzähler zu Wort kommen lässt. Die Grundstory allerdings möchte sehr direkt zum Nachdenken anregen und wirkt natürlich etwas aufdringlich in ihrer Kernaussage.

As a former student of English linguistics, Fox 8 has fascinated me far more than I had anticipated. The plot itself is well-made, though not groundbreaking — it reads much like a classic fable, which seemed to fit nicely. The truly outstanding matter of this short book is, of course, the language. A fox that speaks the human language but has not learnt how to write properly has no other choice but to spell the words exactly as they are said. While the resulting phonetic language looks very alien to the reader, it is actually easy to read and reveals how weird our writing conventions actually are. Wat a grate reed indeed.

George Saunders is not only an acclaimed short story writer but also the winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize for his novel "Lincoln in the Bardo", a rather challenging read. His little book "Fox 8" is so short they didn't even bother to number the pages. It's a letter written by a fox who has managed to learn "Yuman" by listening to a mother read to her "pups": "I listened to those music werds until the sun went down, when all of a suden I woslike: Fox 8, crazy nut, when sun goes down, werld goes dark, skedadle home, or else there can be danjer!" And yes, the whole letter is written in this kind of phonetic fox spelling which is hilarious as it is endearing. The setting is reminiscent of "Watership Down". The foxes' home, a forest, has been cut down to make space for a new Mawl and the adjacent Par King. With his letter to us, Fox 8 holds up the mirror to all our questionable human realities and behaviours. It may look like a children's book, but for all its humour it's very upsetting and very difficult to bear in places. It has the most beautiful illustrations, simple black and red line drawings in the style of the 1930s (a little like Noel Coward song book illustrations, a little like Saint-Exupéry and a little like Tolkien's Mr. Bliss). They complement this funny and heartbreaking little gem just perfectly. "By now I know that you Yumans like your Storys to end hapy? If you want your Storys to end happy, try being niser."