Helpful Score: 1
Sorry, but this was the worst book I ever tried to read. I actually returned it after reading for about 30 minutes. I cannot understand why it is highly rated.
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Lincoln in the Bardo
Lincoln in the Bardo
Author:
Lincoln in the Bardo is hilariously funny, horribly sad, and utterly surprising. If you can fight past an initial uncertainty about the identity of its narrators, you may find that it’s the best thing you’ve read in years. This first novel by acclaimed short-story-writer and essayist George Saunders (Tenth of Decemb... more », The Brain-Dead Megaphone) will upend your expectations of what a novel should be. Saunders has said that Lincoln in the Bardo began as a play, and that sense of a drama gradually revealing itself through disparate voices remains in the work’s final form.
The year is 1862. President Lincoln, already tormented by the knowledge that he’s responsible for the deaths of thousands of young men on the battlefields of the Civil War, loses his beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, to typhoid. The plot begins after Willie is laid to rest in a cemetery near the White House, where, invisible to the living, ghosts linger, unwilling to relinquish this world for the next. Their bantering conversation, much of it concerned with earthly -- and earthy – pleasures, counterbalances Lincoln’s abject sorrow.
Saunders takes huge risks in this novel, and they pay off. His writing is virtuosic – and best of all, its highs and lows are profoundly entertaining. You may hear echoes of Thornton Wilder, Beckett and even a little Chaucer, but Lincoln in the Bardo is peculiar and perfect unto itself. Some advice: don’t try to read this one in a library. You’ll be hooting with laughter when you aren’t wiping away your tears. —Sarah Harrison Smith, The Amazon Book Review
Author:
Lincoln in the Bardo is hilariously funny, horribly sad, and utterly surprising. If you can fight past an initial uncertainty about the identity of its narrators, you may find that it’s the best thing you’ve read in years. This first novel by acclaimed short-story-writer and essayist George Saunders (Tenth of Decemb... more », The Brain-Dead Megaphone) will upend your expectations of what a novel should be. Saunders has said that Lincoln in the Bardo began as a play, and that sense of a drama gradually revealing itself through disparate voices remains in the work’s final form.
The year is 1862. President Lincoln, already tormented by the knowledge that he’s responsible for the deaths of thousands of young men on the battlefields of the Civil War, loses his beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, to typhoid. The plot begins after Willie is laid to rest in a cemetery near the White House, where, invisible to the living, ghosts linger, unwilling to relinquish this world for the next. Their bantering conversation, much of it concerned with earthly -- and earthy – pleasures, counterbalances Lincoln’s abject sorrow.
Saunders takes huge risks in this novel, and they pay off. His writing is virtuosic – and best of all, its highs and lows are profoundly entertaining. You may hear echoes of Thornton Wilder, Beckett and even a little Chaucer, but Lincoln in the Bardo is peculiar and perfect unto itself. Some advice: don’t try to read this one in a library. You’ll be hooting with laughter when you aren’t wiping away your tears. —Sarah Harrison Smith, The Amazon Book Review
ISBN-13: 9781408871751
ISBN-10: 1408871750
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 368
Rating: 4
ISBN-10: 1408871750
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 368
Rating: 4
3 stars, based on 4 ratings
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 17
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 17
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
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This was not a read that I enjoyed. The format was so disturbing that I gave up trying to determine who was who in the Bardo - the place just beyond death. The author appeared to be caught up in creating numerous characters and projecting how they would react to the death of Lincolln's son and to their existence there Some people may find the book interesting so it's my suggestion that anyone so inclined read the book for themselves and make their own decision about its value.
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