Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders

A note about my book reviews. I read a lot of books. But in this venue, I think I will only review those that really make an impression. If, for some strange reason, you are interested in what I think about all the books I have read, have I got a deal for you. Every month I send out an email reporting on them all, both positive and negative, with occasional in-jokes. If you want in on the mailing list for that monthly book report, then venture over to the Contact page and provide your information.

Now on to the book, and it is a doozy.

Lincoln in the Bardo

George Saunders

“Lincoln in the Bardo” is set in 1862, immediately following the death of the Lincolns’ eleven-year-old son, Willie. In Tibetan Buddhism, the bardo is essentially a limbo-like state between lives, where one passes after death before moving on to the next life. So the Lincoln referred to in the title would be Willie, rather than the 16th president. Saunders has said that he got the idea for the novel after hearing that Lincoln was said to have visited his son’s temporary crypt in Georgetown to actually hold the young boy’s body.

The construction of the novel is simply amazing. It is written as a series of passages (some quite short) wherein different characters narrate events or hold conversations. There is no other third person exposition. And it is no spoiler to tell you that almost all of the characters are ghosts.

After a prologue of sorts introducing the characters of Hans Vollman and Roger Bevins III, Saunders relates the story of Willie’s death, quoting contemporaneous sources (some real, some fictional). The remainder of the novel takes place over one night in Oak Hill Cemetery, where Willie was interred.

The ghosts generally refuse to recognize the nature of their existence, maintaining that they are only sick, and their coffins are merely “sick-boxes”. But the three main characters: Vollman, Bevins, and The Reverend Early Thomas, all realize that their kind of existence is not for the just-arrived young Willie. Children and infants, they note, never remain long, and the consequence of “tarrying” for the young seems to be a sort of insanity of the soul. So the three take it upon themselves to help Willie move on. But when the president makes a surprise appearance to visit his son’s body, Willie resists leaving. To say much more would be kind of spoiler-y, and that’s not my thing. And the story’s not just about Willie and the ghosts, it’s also about the president and how he dealt with the grief over his son while struggling to lead a nation at war with itself. In the end, it is a very satisfying read: a page turner that is at various times profoundly sad, sometimes frightening, and often surprisingly quite funny. I think you should read it.

A few words about the audiobook. I am one of those people who read books both ways. I will listen to audiobooks on my walks or working in the yard, and then switch to the physical or ebook version at other times. As mentioned above, this book is told from many points of view. So the audiobook was recorded with a different narrator for each point of view, which turns out to be 166 different readers. One complicating factor of the audiobook is that the different speakers are only identified the first time they speak, whereas in the text, the sources or speakers are noted each time. This might make it difficult to understand, but the bulk of the story is told by four characters: Hans Vollman (Nick Offerman), Roger Bevins III (David Sedaris), The Reverend Everly Thomas (George Saunders), and Willie Lincoln (Kirby Heyborne). And they have different enough voices and points of view that it is easy to follow. A highlight of the audiobook is Bill Hader and Megan Mullaly giving voice to the drunken (and foul-mouthed) Eddie and Betsy Baron. Still, if you mainly listen, I definitely recommend having a print (or ebook) version handy so you can initially identify what is going on.  

Last word: “Lincoln in the Bardo” is just a fascinating and unique book. And it has been in circulation long enough, that you probably won’t even have to put a Hold on it.