Lincoln in the Bardo - Outside of a Dog

343 pages

English language

Published Nov. 18, 2017 by Random House.

ISBN:: 9780812995343
OCLC Number:: 942885124

(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.

7 editions

Amber Dickson reviewed Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

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

4 stars

Unlike any novel I've read before, this book is entirely composed of "quotes" from an assemblage of different voices. Some are excerpts from actual historical accounts while others are completely fictional, and they come together to narrate the events of a single night in 1862, when Willie, the 11-year-old-son of Abraham Lincoln, dies of a fever.

Although the style of prose was strange and took some getting used to, I was completely drawn into the author's vividly imagined world of the "Bardo" (a concept borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism): the stage between dying and the afterlife. In this case it seems the dead are destined for heaven or hell rather than reincarnation, but there are many who for various reasons won't move on, and linger in the bardo. They manifest as tormented ghosts who inhabit the graveyard where the young boy is interred, but they don't understand that they are dead. …

Unlike any novel I've read before, this book is entirely composed of "quotes" from an assemblage of different voices. Some are excerpts from actual historical accounts while others are completely fictional, and they come together to narrate the events of a single night in 1862, when Willie, the 11-year-old-son of Abraham Lincoln, dies of a fever.

Although the style of prose was strange and took some getting used to, I was completely drawn into the author's vividly imagined world of the "Bardo" (a concept borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism): the stage between dying and the afterlife. In this case it seems the dead are destined for heaven or hell rather than reincarnation, but there are many who for various reasons won't move on, and linger in the bardo. They manifest as tormented ghosts who inhabit the graveyard where the young boy is interred, but they don't understand that they are dead. In fact the place is teeming with bizarre and grotesque characters who each have a story to tell, and jostle to be heard by Willie in the hopes that he can help them return to "that previous place".

The tales are told in their own distinct voices, from the flowery and pompous to the vulgar and semi-literate, and are full of all the emotions of life and suffering of their deaths. Quite overwhelming for an eleven year old who wants only to be reunited with his father. Unfortunately, children are not meant to stay long in the bardo...

I found this "innovative" novel at times a little trying to get through (I'm not sure if the audiobook would be easier or not) but overall it was a rewarding read, humorous and very moving.

3.5 stars.