Lincoln in the Bardo

His writing takes you straight to Jhana 1: deep-hearted, loving, compassionate voice.More teens would like English class if Saunders was in it.

My favorite book. I do have several favorites, but this is on the top of the list. I read many lukewarm reviews (after reading the book) and... maybe, like me, you need to be interested in history (particularly Lincoln's life and times) and have a warm feeling for old cemeteries and love reading (and then researching) footnotes and annotations. If not, try something else.

Purchased as a gift.

I had no idea what to expect here, and it took some doing to get used to the format. But having done so the book flowed beautifully, and showed itself to be a poignant and unique historical fiction novel. A new favorite? No. But enough to push me toward more of Saunders' work. Some of his non-fiction next, I think.'And as the sun came up, we prayed, each within ourselves, our usual prayer... To still be here when the sun next set… And discover, in those first moments of restored movement, that we had again been granted the great mother-gift… Time. More time.'

Where to start? I love George Saunders and have read just about everything, including his kids books. I could barely get through this one. Like another reviewer said, I agree with The Atlantic review of this, mostly. And unlike what a lot of folks have said, I did not find this touching, endearing, or filled with pathos. I did not find it a stunning portrayal of a father and president’s loss. It’s a frustrating, bewildering read - like watching a beloved teacher fall to his death down a long flight of stairs while dressed, inexplicably, in a clown suit and then slamming to his final rest on a whoopie cushion that emits a loud fart noise to a stunned audience. Did we just witness something terrible, hilarious, rotten, amazing? I have so many questions - mostly WHY?So basically, I found it a disappointing portrayal peppered with absurdity, a circus cast of characters, odd juxtapositions, a mishmash. It’s like the literati kidnapped Saunders to turn a writer into a writer - there was just no need - and it failed. Was it over or under edited? I’m not sure.To me what makes Saunders a genius is his unique understanding of the way capitalism threatens, warps, and harms our humanity. The best of his Everyman characters persist, often holding on to ever smaller shreds of dignity that they must trade to simply exist, never mind function. We feel for them, we see ourselves in them to some extent at least. There is a sense that our collective nostalgia for the way things used to be (or more accurately, the way we thought they used to be) could be used against us and destroy us. Our delusions are in fact deeply harmful. Unvarnished truth and that shrinking humanity is all we’ve got to save us - and the odds ain’t great.This book also deals with such delusions - this time of bardo purgatory, where Willie Lincoln must hear the cold hard truth of his father that Willie is dead, even as Abe founders in his own denial and delusions even forgetting Tad, his living son, for a bit. And we do watch as truth and the difficult acceptance of it eventually frees these characters, just as the acceptance of the horrifying truths of slavery and war for freedom eventually free the living. And Lincoln, the father, is therefore elevated as righteous truth teller… BUT… the absurdist cast of characters, like a Greek chorus of deplorables and the quotes - real and imagined - make this virtually unreadable. It’s like chaotic slapstick or a weird laugh track over a funeral.Idk, maybe I’m being overly harsh. I just had high hopes for another haunting waltz through American delusions with a treatment that affirmed, we are much more than this, and that coming through the bardo to the other side means something after all.