Lincoln in the Bardo in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 13, 2017 Ryan rated it liked it

Shelves: borrowed, 2017

Overrated.

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Apr 22, 2017 Rachel rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

I wonder how long it would have taken me to figure out what was going on without reading the synopsis. This felt like a long play rather than a novel.

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Nov 12, 2018 superawesomekt rated it liked it

Shelves: needs-tag

3 1/2 stars. Very original novel, reads almost like a play. Has some language and sexual content. Reminded me in some ways of the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

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Mar 10, 2017 Erica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: american-history

Loved this book. Lived up to every starry-eyed review. Best thing Saunders has written yet--and that's saying a lot. I especially loved the weaving in of quotes from primary sources. Reveals so much about the writing of history--from both primary and secondary sources.

loc 294: "This, it occurred to me, this was the undisciplined human community that, fired by its dull collective wit, now drove the armed nation towards it knew-not-what sort of epic martial cataclysm: a massive flailing organism w Loved this book. Lived up to every starry-eyed review. Best thing Saunders has written yet--and that's saying a lot. I especially loved the weaving in of quotes from primary sources. Reveals so much about the writing of history--from both primary and secondary sources.

loc 294: "This, it occurred to me, this was the undisciplined human community that, fired by its dull collective wit, now drove the armed nation towards it knew-not-what sort of epic martial cataclysm: a massive flailing organism with all the rectitude and foresight of an untrained puppy." --private letter of Albert Sloane

loc 313: "In the dining room was a long table with a gigantic looking-glass upon it bearing massive confections of sugar. Most recognizable were Fort Sumter, a warship, a temple of liberty, a Chinese pagoda, a Swiss cottage..." --Kunhardt

loc 327: "At first delicate and perfect, over the course of the night this candy metropolis suffered various ravages, members of the party taking away entire quarters of the city in fists, into pockets, to share with lived ones at home. Later in the evening, the glass table being jostled by the crush, certain of the candied edifices were seen to give way." --Garrett

loc 2482: "bone-chilling firesound associated with the matterlightblooming phenomenon..."

loc 3005: amazing description of a mulatta ghost who was raped countless times in her life, how it happened, how she fared. heartbreaking.

loc 3291: "He came out of nothingness, took form, was loved, was always bound to return to nothingness."

loc 3316: "It is that which used to bear him around. The essential thing (that which was borne, that which we loved) is gone."

loc 3651: "Did I ask to be born licentious, greedy, slightly misanthropic, and to find Elmer so irritating? I did not."

loc 4516: "None of it was real; nothing was real. Everything was real; inconceivably real, infinitely dear. These and all things started as nothing, latent within a vast energy-broth, but then we named them, and loved them, and. in this way, brought them forth. And now must lose them."

First read this in 2017; re-read by listening to the fantastic audiobook in late summer 2021. I wanted to come back to this book to somehow process the death and insanity that has gripped our country during Covid, and ever since Trump was elected. This book is not a salve--I knew it wouldn't be--but it does offer a way of feeling through big, bizarre, violent, mindless events with humanity, with some humor, with historical resonance. I know I'll read it again and again in my life for this reason. ...more

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Apr 05, 2017 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, hot-lit, recommend-to-friends

An inventive and ambitious novel. Is it a novel? Is it a history? Is it fantasy? It can't really be put into any category. This is the story of the death of Abraham Lincoln's son, Willie, and it is told by the ghosts in the graveyard where he is laid - not to rest, but to tarry. He and the other spirits who tell the story aren't ready to move on, indeed, some of them don't even know they are dead. It is interspersed with quotes and excerpts from historical documents, letters, and other writings. ...more

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May 15, 2018 Jen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: american-literature

This book is really moving and I know it's one that will stay with me for a while. Saunders uses the historical event of the death of Lincoln's son to write a beautiful statement about what connects us to life. The issues we're really looking at here are doing what we can while we live to make life worthwhile for us and those around us that love us or that we impact. Through Lincoln and his grief at the death of his son and his anxiety about the Civil War, we are seeing a story about the human c ...more

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