Lincoln in the Bardo in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 01, 2017 Sera rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, library, literary-fiction

This book was complex, multi-layered in its storytelling and extremely ambitious for Saunders, who is known for his well-written short stories, but somehow he manages to pull it all off. The center of the book features Abe Lincoln and his son, Will, who dies as young boy. Will is going to be buried in a tomb within a cemetery where the dead comment on Will's death and the impact that it had on his father, while telling their own stories in between. Sanders also uses an interesting technique thro ...more

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

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

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 It is interspersed with quotes and excerpts from historical documents, letters, and other writings.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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