Chicago Christmas, 1984
George Saunders on the Christmas when he was twenty-six, living in his home town, working in roofing and witnessed a man being cheated out of Christmas.
"One night she said, 'I'm not saying I'm great or anything, but still I think I deserve better than this.' That fall, my uncle called in a favor and soon I was on a roofing crew, one of three grunts riding from job to job in the freezing open back of a truck." — Saunders at twenty-six