A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

Name: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
ISBN: 9781526624284

by George Saunders · first published 2021

12mentions

10recommended by

11HN commenters

2021–2025first – last mentioned

91% recommend9% neutral

Why HN recommends it

Close reading of four or seven classic Russian short stories that shows how they work, written by a creative writing teacher; readers say it sharpens how you read fiction and write it.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

Biography & Memoir Fiction & Literature Writing & Language

For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidio

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Mentions per year

What Hacker News says

jwood27 · Mar 19, 2022 · Recommends

…Specialized World - Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones - Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow - Ethics in the Real World: 86 Brief Essays on Things that Matter - A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life - Humankind: A Hopeful History - The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think [1] https://jacobw.xyz/books/
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life?” ↗
morley · Jul 18, 2022 · Recommends

George Saunders' recent book "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain" is great: he goes through four classic Russian short stories and dissects how they work. He also has a Substack where he does the same for other stories, in addition to answering misc questions.
on “‘How to Tell a Story’ Review: Aristotle in the Writers’ Room” ↗
UncleOxidant · Sep 5, 2021 · Recommends

George Saunders' A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life[1] is highly recommended. I thought I had a good idea of how to read a short story before reading this book. I was wrong. Saunders…
on “Chekhov's Gun” ↗
johndhi · Jun 4, 2022 · Recommends

George Saunders is funny. I highly recommend reading his commencement speech and I REALLY highly recommend reading A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. The latter because Russian literature is amazing.
on “Ways of Thinking about Endings” ↗
rgrzywinski · Feb 25, 2025 · Recommends

…tackle, etc, etc, etc. was a cognitive nightmare. There had to be a way to grapple with all of the constraints in a more systematic way. The second breakthrough came from reading George Saunders' "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain." He describes writing not as executing a perfect plan, but as making a move and then reacting to it - each sentence creating constraints that shape what comes next. I realized this was exactly how I…
on “The Great Software Illusion: It Was Always About Constraints” ↗
crackedbassoon · Dec 29, 2022 · Recommends

…as One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Shadow Divers (Robert Kurson) is a true-life story about divers discovering and exploring a remarkable wreck. Read this by accident, turned out awesome. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (George Saunders) was one of those times where I knew little about a topic going in but got swept up by the author’s eloquence and enthusiasm. I rediscovered Michael Moorcock’s Elric series thanks to…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023” ↗
tptacek · Mar 14, 2021 · Recommends

The audiobook of _A Swim in a Pond in the Rain_ is really, really well done; they've got people like Glenn Close and Nick Offerman reading the stories, followed by Saunders analyzing in his own voice. I liked it a lot. As for this review: ehhh. I…
on “The Short Story Priesthood” ↗
slowmovintarget · Jan 14, 2021 · Recommends

…answers to that question, I am grateful for his reminder of the goal of art. In an era diseased by “facile, shallow, agenda-laced” information (“as you may have noticed,” Saunders says, tongue-in-cheek), A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is especially welcome. The book is a literary analysis of seven stories from four Russian masters to examine story-craft.
on “George Saunders on Story” ↗
powersnail · Dec 5, 2021 · Recommends

This article seems to be a precursor to his recent work, "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain", a book that analyzes some short stories written by great Russian authors, in which he also expounded on several opinions expressed in this article. I really like his method of analyzing short stories,…
on “George Saunders: what writers do when they write (2017)” ↗
johndhi · Nov 27, 2022 · Recommends

I like Saunders but this is like the 20th time I've seen him interviewed about his process. I'm a little tired of it. Do recommend a swim in a pond in the rain though.
on “George Saunders on Writing” ↗
panarky · Nov 27, 2022 · Recommends

Just finished A Swim in a Pond in the Rain and it was a mind-expander for me. Saunders teaches creative writing at Syracuse University. This book repurposes some of his teaching for a more general audience by analyzing seven classic Russian short…
on “George Saunders on Writing” ↗
50 · Dec 5, 2021 · Mentions

Saunders released a new book at the start of the year which I've been meaning to pick up: titled A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life[1], it's like a creative writing class centered around the Russian short story taught by Saunders. 1. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53487237-a-swim-in-a-...
on “George Saunders: what writers do when they write (2017)” ↗