I Wonder What George Saunders is Doing

I (probably wrongly) assume he is working on a novel because he received a MacArthur Fellowship (a.k.a. Genius grant) in 2006 and since then has only come out with one book-length work--a collection of nonfiction essays called The Braindead Megaphone.

I watched Saunders on the Charlie Rose show with some other MacArthur Fellowship recipients. I can't recall the exact wording, but I remember him saying that he felt like he had been working in a very small room (figuratively) and that the award raised the ceiling for him and made him aware that he had larger ambitions. Sounds like he is working on a novel to me. His first two books, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and Pastoralia, each contain short stories and a novella. I found both of those collections hilarious and original, but I haven't yet read his stand-alone novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, his children's book The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, or his latest short story collection In Persuasion Nation. If I hear the slightest rumor that a novel is forthcoming, I will probably read his entire oeuvre and start waiting for the new book so I can read it in one sitting like a rabid Harry Potter fan. Why? Because Saunders is (or was) an "experimental writer" and I like his style. Self-loathing characters oppressed by technology and consumerism, corporate-speak, zaniness, with a vaguely concealed moral core. All of this is probably irrelevant to the fact that certain stories made me laugh on a page-by-page basis. I know he is now considered a "popular" writer, but he got a blurb from Thomas Pynchon, which, right or wrong, is all I really need these days.