![]() ![]() It spent two weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and has been the subject of numerous hot takes, think pieces, and other literary essays. Together, their dialog often tells a single story. Lincoln in the Bardo, the novel by George Saunders, has become one of those books everyone is talking about. ![]() These sections of the book read much like a play - where one “ghost” says one thing (immediately followed by the identification of who is speaking) and then a second adds detail or opinion and so on. The bardo - a Buddhist term referring to the transitional space between death and rebirth - is populated by many deceased people from different time periods, all having conversations, arguing, and exchanging anecdotes about their lives. The experience is sometimes even uncomfortably close to the subject. It completely subverts existing literature of ghosts and the afterlife to achieve a close and personal connection to history. And, for me, the beautifully written passages featuring these two characters were my favorites–Willie trying to understand the very adult concept that he has lost his life and our former President weighed down by incomprehensible grief in the middle of a national crisis.īut as the title implies, most of the “action” takes place in the bardo, with MANY other characters. Lincoln in the Bardo is notable for a series of dazzling accomplishments. ![]() LINCOLN IN THE BARDO takes place in 1862, the middle of the American Civil War, around the death of 11-year-old William “Willie” Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln’s son. ![]()
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