Reviews

Bardo or Not Bardo by J.T. Mahany, Antoine Volodine

konkrete's review against another edition

5.0

Please read it to me after I die

bucie's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

dujyt's review against another edition

I'm not going to rate this book because it just wasn't for me. The references to the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Buddhist funeral practices were interesting, but the stories just seemed absurd and beyond me as far as "getting" them. I read them all, and none of them clicked.

haunted_klaus's review against another edition

challenging dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

cachou's review

challenging dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

abookishtype's review against another edition

1.0

Antoine Volodine’s Bardo or Not Bardo (translated by J.T. Mahany) is another book for the “what the fuck did I just read?” files. The summary on Goodreads makes sense: seven chapters show seven different characters (many of them named Schlumm) fail to achieve enlightenment while traveling through bardo and end up being reincarnated back on earth. I was initially attracted to this book because the review I read said this book was a humorous take on characters struggling in bardo; I was hoping for something a bit like Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job or Secondhand Souls. This book is nothing like Moore’s work. It’s too weird and disjointed for comfortable reading. There were some parts that made me chuckle, but mostly this book just bewildered me.

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.

piccoline's review against another edition

5.0

This guy, this Volodine. It's quite a run, or anyway seems to be from the English-speaker POV. I haven't really dug in to see whether these are being released in anything like the order AV wrote them.

This one felt like it might not quite pack the punch. Still good, still funny and strange. But somehow it wasn't quite pushing the same buttons in quite the same perfect way. Then, somewhere around the end of the 4th story, when you started to realize (just like in the middle of [b:We Monks and Soldiers|13594210|We Monks and Soldiers|Lutz Bassmann|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352204692s/13594210.jpg|19182428], just like with [b:Writers|21563518|Writers|Antoine Volodine|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398351695s/21563518.jpg|14193601]) how the structure of the thing is doing its work on you, that this isn't *just* a collection of stories, and suddenly its doing its palindromic work on you and everything just starts resonating?

This guy, this Volodine. Wow.