Trade Paperback, 343 pages
English language
Published Feb. 5, 2018 by Random House.
February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy's body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins a story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, …
February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy's body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins a story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state -- called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo -- a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie's soul.
I loved this book. If you have a chance listened to the audio book with Nick Offerman, Carrie Brownstein and many others doing the voices. It really brings the stories of individual characters alive. The story of the Lincoln’s loss has also touched me and now it’s interwoven with so many other stories. I highly recommend this book.
Congratulations to the author for the ManBooker Prize.
Although I liked this book very much it did keep reminding me of Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book"
Just to find out if I was the only one who thought so I went googling. Here's a link to a short critical article from someone else who liked the book and drew parallels to Gaiman and several others.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/book-review-lincoln-in-the-bardo-by-george-saunders-1-4393571
Utterly brilliant. Just how one person can create quite so many characters - and with personalities that jump out of the page - is incredible.
Stunning, read in a moment but the intersection of its premises on death and decision keep rattling me.
As soon as it hit bookstore shelves Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders went to No. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller List. It has been one of the most eagerly anticipated works and it has been considered a masterpiece.
But why I can’t see it?
It is not that I didn’t like it. I really enjoyed it. But it didn’t blow me away. Lincoln in the Bardo is a different book, an interesting experiment. It is a very quick read, in dialogue form. It is a serious book. It is clever and funny, a bit sentimental, perhaps.
Is it a book that changes the literature as we know it? Well, I wouldn’t go so far. It is readable. It is brilliantly done. It has great rhythm, but to me it lacks structure. I am not even sure it is a novel.
An audacious, daring book. I enjoyed …
As soon as it hit bookstore shelves Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders went to No. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller List. It has been one of the most eagerly anticipated works and it has been considered a masterpiece.
But why I can’t see it?
It is not that I didn’t like it. I really enjoyed it. But it didn’t blow me away. Lincoln in the Bardo is a different book, an interesting experiment. It is a very quick read, in dialogue form. It is a serious book. It is clever and funny, a bit sentimental, perhaps.
Is it a book that changes the literature as we know it? Well, I wouldn’t go so far. It is readable. It is brilliantly done. It has great rhythm, but to me it lacks structure. I am not even sure it is a novel.
An audacious, daring book. I enjoyed it but it didn’t move me.
Lincoln in the Bardo is a singular, unconventional read. I enjoyed it immensely. I had never heard the term bardo before, a word that in this novel refers to the time after one's death, but before...whatever comes next. Some characters in this story linger longer than others.
Saunders mixes poignant short stories, historical accounts, and intriguing dialog to create this unusual novel. There is sadness and humor, social commentary, and historical fact. The author tells the reader nothing, directly.
President Lincoln had to cope with many crises at the time of his son Willie's death, and this novel paints the picture of an introspective, philosophical man trying to make peace with one of the crushing events of his personal life, with the national tragedy taking place all around him. Everything, with and without, is so unstable.
The way this novel is presented takes some getting used to, in the beginning. …
Lincoln in the Bardo is a singular, unconventional read. I enjoyed it immensely. I had never heard the term bardo before, a word that in this novel refers to the time after one's death, but before...whatever comes next. Some characters in this story linger longer than others.
Saunders mixes poignant short stories, historical accounts, and intriguing dialog to create this unusual novel. There is sadness and humor, social commentary, and historical fact. The author tells the reader nothing, directly.
President Lincoln had to cope with many crises at the time of his son Willie's death, and this novel paints the picture of an introspective, philosophical man trying to make peace with one of the crushing events of his personal life, with the national tragedy taking place all around him. Everything, with and without, is so unstable.
The way this novel is presented takes some getting used to, in the beginning. Actually, it's downright confusing, but not for long. I would recommend this book to anyone.
I've never read anything by George Saunders before, but I will certainly seek out his stories in the future.
I choose books that keep me in a state of confusion. Saunders exceeded beyond all expectations.
