Lincoln in the Bardo by GeorgeSaunders
So this book is odd...I mean, really, really odd. In the interest of full disclosure, I only read part of it (179/302 pages-you do the math). Not because I was not entranced-I was. But because I just sort of stopped reading it. I think this is one of those books that had I started it on vacation I would have plowed through to the end without ever putting it down. As it was, I tried to read it in between "life" and it just does not lend itself to the up/down/ten minutes here/half an hour there reading that I generally do when I am NOT on vacation. I didn't feel compelled to pick it back up and see what happens-its not one of those books that you think is going to have some great reveal at the end (though it may-like I said, I haven't finished it)-I think I just put it down one day and when I went to read next, I picked something else up instead and when I realized I had not finished Lincoln in the Bardo I was like, eh, that's too bad, but...
The book is set in the cemetery where Lincoln's son is buried and it is narrated by various "individuals" who are there at the time young Lincoln dies. As the reader you are not sure whether these are actual dead people or just the souls of the lost, the damned, or the waiting...perhaps its a mix of all of these? There seems to exist some order to how the process is supposed to go and children, it appears, are not supposed to linger. Young Lincoln does, as in the book his father returns to his son's grave after the funeral and physically revisits his lost child over and over. Part of the plot of the book is the child's fellow dead trying to convince him to move on to the other side and not wait around for his father's return. The absurdity of the premise does not outweigh the strong feelings that this story evokes-its heartbreaking. Maybe that was another reason I did not finish it-it was hard for me to envision a happy-or even happyish- ending.
The writing is difficult, though once you get the hang of it it does move along nicely-but, as I said, its not really a great one to pick up and put down. I'll leave this one on my list to either reread in its entirety or else at least finish and I'll give it a proper rating then...for now, its incomplete.
Quoteable Quotes:
"I shall never forget those solemn moments-genius and greatness weeping over love's lost idol"
"My opinion of myself fell somewhat on that occasion."
"I had heard Mr. Vollman's story many thousands of time, and had, I fear, told him my own at least as many times." roger bevins followed by: "In short, it was dull here, and we craved the slightest variation". hans vollman
Of a group that had come and then passed on:
"Smiling, grateful, gazing about themselves in wonder, favoring us with a last fond look as they-" roger blevins "Surrendered." hans vollman "Succumbed." roger blevins III "Capitulated." hans vollman
The book is set in the cemetery where Lincoln's son is buried and it is narrated by various "individuals" who are there at the time young Lincoln dies. As the reader you are not sure whether these are actual dead people or just the souls of the lost, the damned, or the waiting...perhaps its a mix of all of these? There seems to exist some order to how the process is supposed to go and children, it appears, are not supposed to linger. Young Lincoln does, as in the book his father returns to his son's grave after the funeral and physically revisits his lost child over and over. Part of the plot of the book is the child's fellow dead trying to convince him to move on to the other side and not wait around for his father's return. The absurdity of the premise does not outweigh the strong feelings that this story evokes-its heartbreaking. Maybe that was another reason I did not finish it-it was hard for me to envision a happy-or even happyish- ending.
The writing is difficult, though once you get the hang of it it does move along nicely-but, as I said, its not really a great one to pick up and put down. I'll leave this one on my list to either reread in its entirety or else at least finish and I'll give it a proper rating then...for now, its incomplete.
Quoteable Quotes:
"I shall never forget those solemn moments-genius and greatness weeping over love's lost idol"
"My opinion of myself fell somewhat on that occasion."
"I had heard Mr. Vollman's story many thousands of time, and had, I fear, told him my own at least as many times." roger bevins followed by: "In short, it was dull here, and we craved the slightest variation". hans vollman
Of a group that had come and then passed on:
"Smiling, grateful, gazing about themselves in wonder, favoring us with a last fond look as they-" roger blevins "Surrendered." hans vollman "Succumbed." roger blevins III "Capitulated." hans vollman
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