Lincoln in the Bardo

a novel

343 pages

English language

Published Feb. 14, 2017 by Random House.

ISBN:
978-0-8129-9534-3
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OCLC Number:
942885124

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4 stars (16 reviews)

Lincoln in the Bardo is a 2017 experimental novel by American writer George Saunders. It is Saunders's first full-length novel and was the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller for the week of March 5, 2017. Saunders is better known for his short stories, reporting and occasional essays.The novel takes place during and after the death of Abraham Lincoln's son William "Willie" Wallace Lincoln and deals with the president's grief at his loss. The bulk of the novel, which takes place over the course of a single evening, is set in the bardo—an intermediate space between life and rebirth. Lincoln in the Bardo received critical acclaim, and won the 2017 Man Booker Prize. Many publications later ranked it one of the best novels of its decade.

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Review of 'Lincoln in the Bardo' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

For this novel the format worked. The many, often conflicting, historical quotes provide the sense of incredible pressure that Lincoln was under in his public life that he needed to balance with this ultimate tragedy in his private life. Either one could have destroyed him, yet he overcame both and later on much more. I came away from this book with a better understanding of the strength of Lincoln's character than I have been able to obtain from numerous biographies.

Review of 'Lincoln in the Bardo' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Everyone in this book is dead. That's because it takes place a long time ago but most of them are also dead at the long-time-ago when the book takes place. Few of them are aware of it. There's plenty of evidence for it, they are in a graveyard, but just like most living people, they are in denial on the topic of death. They refer to themselves as sick, or as having had an accident. The word "dead" is avoided. Coffins are called "sick boxes." They create their own worlds out of their imaginations (just as we all do but it's more obvious for these dead people than for you and me).

This concept of death has been around for a long time (as you'd know if, like me, you read books on the occult) but Saunders has added a few features of his own. How they correspond to the …

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