The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders

7.5/10 dropps

Clocking it at just 130 short pages, George Saunders’ novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil is a dark, comedic, cautionary tale executed in the spirit of past great “moralists” like Vonnegut and Twain. The book follows the plight and (spoiler alert!) happily-ever-after for a group of mild-mannered citizens called Inner Hornerites, who are trapped in an unwarranted border dispute with the self-serving, domineering officials of Outer Horner. As the story explains, Inner Horner is a country “so small that only one Inner Hornerite at a time could fit inside, and the other six Inner Hornerites had to wait their turns to live in their own country while standing very timidly in the surrounding country of Outer Horner.” The Outer Hornerites, who have plenty of room to move around regardless, decide to begin taxing the smaller country for its six-person land usage.

The Inner Hornerites, though disgruntled, comply with the taxation at first (orchestrated by a particularly power-hungry citizen named Phil), and are eventually stripped of what meager resources their tiny country held in the first place: a stream, a single tree, and some dirt. When the taxation can no longer be met by resources, Phil, who has steadily increased his government rank throughout the story, mandates that the citizens of Inner Horner be “disassembled” one by one in order to satisfy their ill-imposed debts. It is clear that throughout these plot elements, Saunders is making sweeping statements regarding fascism and genocide, particularly in light of world relations in the past couple of decades.
In addition, the thickly (or not so thickly, depending on your perspective) veiled subject matter behind the piece should not be so unfamiliar to anybody who was awake during any part of the Bush Jr. presidency. Phil’s numero-uno tactic used to instill action in the Outer Hornerites is largely jingoistic – his reasoning behind the ransacking of Inner Horner is revealed to be purely that the larger country is stronger and more deserving than “those pipsqueaks,” and he tells the stagnant, ineffectual President of Outer Horner that the members of the smaller country could be a danger, though no reason is ever provided. (Cue Toby Keith’s “Courtesy Of The Red, White and Blue”?)

In spite of its political overtones, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil is a funny, enjoyable piece of literature that is well worth picking up at your local bookstore or library. Fans of Vonnegut, Pynchon, Orwell, and even Dr. Seuss will easily fall for Saunders’ quirky style and quick wit. Saunders’ other titles include the short story collections Pastoralia, Civilwarland in Bad Decline, and In Persuasion Nation.
-Emily Simpson