Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders
This book is NOT for everyone. Just putting that out there right away. I will not be recommending this to my book club or my mother. Or her book club.
So, why four stars, you ask? Ahh, well spotted. I gave this book four stars because it is wildly inventive, like nothing I have ever read before, and frankly, it was fascinating! Crude to discomfort in some places, and the format was at first very hard to follow - sort of like a script, no quote marks anywhere, just character names. I admit, I cheated a bit and read The New Yorker's review of this after I struggled with the first 20 pages or so - that article was a tremendous help in figuring out what was going on for me (it is not a sunbeam, for example, it is a ceiling beam - very different result!). So I started again, and I GOT it.
Here's the deal - the story is set in a graveyard and there are three main characters, and they are all dead. But they don't know they are dead, they all just think they are "sick." (That might be a spoiler, but I think you need to know that going in. And it is mentioned on the inside flap of the book, so.....) One is a middle aged man married to a younger woman who was just about to, well, be happy, when he got "sick." Another is a man of the cloth who actually does know what is what but is terrified of what is next. The third man had an oppressed life and a self inflicted "sickness" that he immediately regretted, and spends much time lamenting those wondrous and mundane things he misses about "before." Suddenly, they are all greeted by a newcomer they all feel compelled to help- a very young newcomer, named Willie. Willie Lincoln. As in son of Abe. Yep. Here we go.
The rest of the story includes many other "sick" people and their various manifestations in this Limbo (bardo) and their stories and quirks. (This is where the crudeness comes in, and you really have to have an open mind into the author's idea of spirits here. But hang in there, it's worth it.) It also includes extremely detailed research on the times - 1862, the first year of the Civil War and the year Lincoln really did lose his 11 year old son to typhoid fever. There are several chapters that are devoted to quotes from various sources about the public's (very negative) perception of their President, this war, and the toll in life it was already costing - not to mention the huge soiree Lincoln hosts in the White House while his son lies upstairs dying. Lincoln, suffering from his own deep grief, visits Willie's grave and comes to understand a bit more about what needs to be done for the country to end these losses. But the story is less about Lincoln and more about our three spirits and their situation, their attitudes toward their situation, and their relationships with each other.
Themes of awareness, acceptance, grief, responsibility and what the afterlife looks like are all part of this crazy story. I have never read anything by Saunders before, but understand this first full length novel was highly anticipated. I will be interested to see the full reviews - I suspect they will be as varied as the spirits in his graveyard yarn.
Also, I can't resist this timely quote regarding Lincoln that is found in chapter 70:
So we have a dilemma put to us, What to do, when his power must continue two years longer and when the existence of our country may be endangered before he can be replaced by a man of sense. How hard, in order the save the country, to sustain a man who is incompetent. - In "Lincoln Reconsidered," by David Herbert Donald.
Incompetent? Hmmmm. How time changes perspective. I love history. ;-)
by George Saunders
Weird.
This book is NOT for everyone. Just putting that out there right away. I will not be recommending this to my book club or my mother. Or her book club.
So, why four stars, you ask? Ahh, well spotted. I gave this book four stars because it is wildly inventive, like nothing I have ever read before, and frankly, it was fascinating! Crude to discomfort in some places, and the format was at first very hard to follow - sort of like a script, no quote marks anywhere, just character names. I admit, I cheated a bit and read The New Yorker's review of this after I struggled with the first 20 pages or so - that article was a tremendous help in figuring out what was going on for me (it is not a sunbeam, for example, it is a ceiling beam - very different result!). So I started again, and I GOT it.
Here's the deal - the story is set in a graveyard and there are three main characters, and they are all dead. But they don't know they are dead, they all just think they are "sick." (That might be a spoiler, but I think you need to know that going in. And it is mentioned on the inside flap of the book, so.....) One is a middle aged man married to a younger woman who was just about to, well, be happy, when he got "sick." Another is a man of the cloth who actually does know what is what but is terrified of what is next. The third man had an oppressed life and a self inflicted "sickness" that he immediately regretted, and spends much time lamenting those wondrous and mundane things he misses about "before." Suddenly, they are all greeted by a newcomer they all feel compelled to help- a very young newcomer, named Willie. Willie Lincoln. As in son of Abe. Yep. Here we go.
The rest of the story includes many other "sick" people and their various manifestations in this Limbo (bardo) and their stories and quirks. (This is where the crudeness comes in, and you really have to have an open mind into the author's idea of spirits here. But hang in there, it's worth it.) It also includes extremely detailed research on the times - 1862, the first year of the Civil War and the year Lincoln really did lose his 11 year old son to typhoid fever. There are several chapters that are devoted to quotes from various sources about the public's (very negative) perception of their President, this war, and the toll in life it was already costing - not to mention the huge soiree Lincoln hosts in the White House while his son lies upstairs dying. Lincoln, suffering from his own deep grief, visits Willie's grave and comes to understand a bit more about what needs to be done for the country to end these losses. But the story is less about Lincoln and more about our three spirits and their situation, their attitudes toward their situation, and their relationships with each other.
Themes of awareness, acceptance, grief, responsibility and what the afterlife looks like are all part of this crazy story. I have never read anything by Saunders before, but understand this first full length novel was highly anticipated. I will be interested to see the full reviews - I suspect they will be as varied as the spirits in his graveyard yarn.
Also, I can't resist this timely quote regarding Lincoln that is found in chapter 70:
So we have a dilemma put to us, What to do, when his power must continue two years longer and when the existence of our country may be endangered before he can be replaced by a man of sense. How hard, in order the save the country, to sustain a man who is incompetent. - In "Lincoln Reconsidered," by David Herbert Donald.
Incompetent? Hmmmm. How time changes perspective. I love history. ;-)
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