A review by thekuster
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

5.0

4.5* Audiobook - I'm a bit embarrassed to say, it took two false starts before I finally started understanding this novel. The initial start where I completely didn't understand what was going on (I thought Nick Offerman was voicing President Lincoln...) to the point where I was tuning it out completely. The second endeavour while on vacation and listening to this on the beach, which only lead me to falling asleep while enjoying the lovely drones of multiple voices narrating in my ears. Again, no ounce of the story taking hold. When I finally managed to sign out the audiobook again from my public library, I made a solid effort to understand what I was really getting into. And suffice it to say, I'm so glad I gave it another try! Unfolding more like a play than an audiobook, the voices of the characters started becoming familiar, forming full fledged individuals in my mind. The cryptic language that had originally thoroughly confused me, now I understood as denial from a host of unreliable narrators. Each character had a story to tell and even in the most brief of glimpses, their stories were varied, deep and intriguing. When the story finally came to an end, it really was like saying good bye to people that I'd come to know very well indeed.