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A review by danielle_w
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
5.0
This book, in style and content, is truly unlike any I've read. It's like the cosmos- hundreds of unrelated pinpoints pulled together by a force of nature. In this instance, the force of nature is the death of 9 year old Willie Lincoln.
The people dictating most of the story are ghosts who can't come to terms with the fact that they are dead, so they live 'in the bardo'- a waiting place- convinced that they are only sick and waiting to become alive again.
Points of view shift from ghosts who are living in 'the bardo', to excerpts from real newspapers during the Lincoln presidency, to fictionalized Willie himself, to excerpts from actual diary entries written by the graveyard caretaker, to the thoughts of Abraham Lincoln when the ghosts float into his body. Because of all this, it almost reads as a play. The shifting POVs give you glimpses of hundreds of characters who range from evil, crass men to righteous ones. (Be warned, the crass stories are in no way sanitized).
Saunders somehow blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction, yet this book could not accurately be called historic fiction. It's nonfiction in a slightly altered universe.
I appreciate the tone shifts throughout this book- which is refreshing. You'd expect a book about death (and therefore the life before it) to be self-aware, introspective and profound. There are certainly moments of this, particularly as the living Lincoln comes to terms with his young son's death in the graveyard, holding his dead body. Instead, it's like Saunders is casually dictating the stories of each voice who speaks (seriously, you forget this is fiction). You feel as though you are looking through both sides of a thin curtain in this graveyard.
Saunders is a bit boyish throughout the book- puerile gags that had me rolling my eyes at times. Then again, he is a satirist, so that could be expected.
Subplots (or rather, plots of sub characters) include uncensored depictions of rape and homosexuality and strong language.
The people dictating most of the story are ghosts who can't come to terms with the fact that they are dead, so they live 'in the bardo'- a waiting place- convinced that they are only sick and waiting to become alive again.
Points of view shift from ghosts who are living in 'the bardo', to excerpts from real newspapers during the Lincoln presidency, to fictionalized Willie himself, to excerpts from actual diary entries written by the graveyard caretaker, to the thoughts of Abraham Lincoln when the ghosts float into his body. Because of all this, it almost reads as a play. The shifting POVs give you glimpses of hundreds of characters who range from evil, crass men to righteous ones. (Be warned, the crass stories are in no way sanitized).
Saunders somehow blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction, yet this book could not accurately be called historic fiction. It's nonfiction in a slightly altered universe.
I appreciate the tone shifts throughout this book- which is refreshing. You'd expect a book about death (and therefore the life before it) to be self-aware, introspective and profound. There are certainly moments of this, particularly as the living Lincoln comes to terms with his young son's death in the graveyard, holding his dead body. Instead, it's like Saunders is casually dictating the stories of each voice who speaks (seriously, you forget this is fiction). You feel as though you are looking through both sides of a thin curtain in this graveyard.
Saunders is a bit boyish throughout the book- puerile gags that had me rolling my eyes at times. Then again, he is a satirist, so that could be expected.
Subplots (or rather, plots of sub characters) include uncensored depictions of rape and homosexuality and strong language.