Lincoln in the Bardo

audio cd

Published Feb. 14, 2017 by Random House Audio.

ISBN:: 978-0-553-39757-4

(1 review)

February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy's body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins a story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, …

February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy's body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins a story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state -- called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo -- a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie's soul.

8 editions

Judy Anderson reviewed Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Review of 'Lincoln in the Bardo' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This was one of the weirdest books I've encountered. I didn't really read it; after a while I just skimmed, picking up most of the important scenes, I think. I don't really recommend this book, and I fail to see why the back cover blurbs are all about "brilliant". I think the presentation would have been better in a much shorter work; a lot of the things said by the different characters and the bits of plot presented as newspaper clippings seem like wastes of good paper. Also, I might have read the whole thing if it were shorter. Come to think of it, I DID read a shorter work! :-)