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Lincoln in the Bardo

George Saunders

Start date: November 15, 2017

Finish date: October 1, 2017

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Lyn Dahlstrom

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Reading List

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What Members Thought

Jan 14, 2017 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read2017, around-the-usa, audiobook, reviewcopy, booker-winners-and-listed, location-usa-illinois

Imagine the historical research approach of someone like David McCullough, and pull those details into a novel that takes place almost entirely in a graveyard, ghosts and all (picture The Graveyard Book), and you have this novel. I was lucky to receive a review copy of the audiobook from the publisher, because I think this is the preferred format for the novel.

Since George Saunders wrote the novel in 108 sections, with distinct voices, they decided to use 166 voices in the recording (Time Magaz Imagine the historical research approach of someone like David McCullough, and pull those details into a novel that takes place almost entirely in a graveyard, ghosts and all (picture The Graveyard Book), and you have this novel. I was lucky to receive a review copy of the audiobook from the publisher, because I think this is the preferred format for the novel.

Since George Saunders wrote the novel in 108 sections, with distinct voices, they decided to use 166 voices in the recording (Time Magazine did a short profile of the upcoming production, and you can listen to an excerpt on the publisher site.)

Nick Offerman and David Sedaris, along with George Saunders, are three primary voices (although I thought Sedaris was Holly Hunter until after I'd finished, despite having heard him narrate his own books) and a cast of friends, stars, and family fill out the rest. Some voices are heard only one time, reading a letter or fact from what sounds like real sources, and I imagine some are, some aren't. That is a bit confusing in the beginning, until you get into the rhythm of the novel. It's enough to know that you don't need to remember the voices in conjunction with their names, so they can pass through your mind.

Some of the time the multiple voices seem to just be providing context, but often they are playing with the narrative of context, some remembering a full moon, others remembering a cloudy night, others remembering a crescent, etc. These tiny excerpts are often followed by the narrator with an abbreviation I had not heard, so here's a hint: "Op. cit." refers to a longer bibliography or a previously mentioned citation. I wish they had left that out of the audio because I had no idea what it was for most of my listening experience. I had looked up opsit, opsid, oppsid, upsid, and every other combination until I found it. It's a minor thing but gets used so frequently with all the tiny bits, that it drove me to distraction!

Overall the novel is pretty fragmented, and I found I did better in comprehending it when listening for long spans of time, like the five hours I spent in the car yesterday. I am not sure what kind of novel I expected Saunders to write for his first published longer work, but I did not expect something quite so simultaneously historical and experimental!

The highlight for me has to be Nick Offerman though. He is an excellent narrator and now I want to go back and listen to more of his productions. More, please!

ETA: Changed my 4 stars to 5 the more I thought about it.

One more ETA: love or hate it, this sucker just won the Man Booker Prize! ...more

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Mar 19, 2017 Andi rated it it was amazing

Oh, this book. First, if you like audio books, choose that for this title. David Sedaris, Nick Offerman, Saunders himself, Don Cheadle, and a host of others read the book, and it's amazing.

Secondly, this is a book you have to trust. You have to let yourself go without it's unusual structure as well as it's unusual premise. But I assure you, you will be rewarded.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ...more

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Jan 16, 2021 Loretta rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reading-for-craft

Holy crap did I ever love this book. The first few chapters were a bit challenging, form wise, but I eventually just stopped reading the citations (for the quotes from biographies etc.) and found the flow, and from then on it was just...wonder and amazement and crying and oh so good and hard and lovely.

And, as a practicing Buddhist for 20 years now (but one who spent about 18 of those years avoiding toooo much emphasis on death and the bardo part of things), wow, I really want to read some Budd ...more

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Apr 22, 2018 Clifford rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

What saved this for me was the audio, I think. I also read some sections, but listening helped differentiate the MANY different voices. Still, although it is in some ways impressive, what's most impressive about it is that he sustained this for a whole book, when I think a short story would have been sufficient. Except that it's a whole book, it feels a bit derivative of the last act of Our Town, which features the voices of the dead in the town cemetery. ...more

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Mar 05, 2017 Kate rated it really liked it

Excellent. Thought provoking. A beautiful meditation on death and grief.

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May 08, 2017 SooYoung rated it it was amazing

Honestly, the book lives up to the hype. I'm not familiar with Saunders (I know, shame on me), but even I was aware that there were high exceptions for his debut novel. I actually bought the book on a friend's recommendation (something I seldom do), and I'm glad I did. At first, I was all, eh, I'm not really into historical fiction, I'm not really interested in Lincoln... that was enough to keep me disinterested. But my friend sent me a few pages, and the unusual writing style sold me.

In short, Honestly, the book lives up to the hype. I'm not familiar with Saunders (I know, shame on me), but even I was aware that there were high exceptions for his debut novel. I actually bought the book on a friend's recommendation (something I seldom do), and I'm glad I did. At first, I was all, eh, I'm not really into historical fiction, I'm not really interested in Lincoln... that was enough to keep me disinterested. But my friend sent me a few pages, and the unusual writing style sold me.

In short, Lincoln's young son, Willie, has died (fact). Willie is in a bardo state between living and dying, heaven and hell, etc at the crypt where he is buried. The story goes on from there. What's particularly exciting about this book is how Saunders told the story. Short news clippings set the scene in reality (although, it's amazing how differently that reality can be viewed) while other ghosts in the bardo hold a conversation amongst themselves that reveal the narrative. Often dialogue is short jumping between characters--at times it was difficult to follow, but I think that's part of the point, all these lost souls vying for attention, trying to make sense of something incomprehensible (to them). The style could easily have failed and been hack-y, but Saunders makes it work. It's quite inspiring. Will definitely get a reread at some point.

A few excerpts:

"'The terror and consternation of the Presidential couple may be imagined by anyone who has ever loved a child, and suffered that dread... that Fate may not hold that life in as high regard...'" p 16

"Resembling a fish who, having washed ashore, lies immobile and alert, acutely aware of its vulnerability." p 29

"He was the sort of child people imagine their children will be, before they have children." p 51

"There was a touch of prairie about the fellow." p 147

"Strange, isn't it? To have dedicated one's life to a certain venture, neglecting other aspects of one's life, only to have that venture, in the end, amount to nothing at all, the product of one's labors entirely forgotten?" p 210

"I was in error when I saw him as fixed and stable and thought I would have him forever. He was never fixed, nor stable, but always just a passing, temporary energy-burst. ... He had never stayed the same, even instant to instant." p 244

"His mind was freshly inclined toward sorrow; toward the fact that the world was full of sorrow; that everyone labored under some burden of sorrow; ..." p 303

"We are ready, sir; are angry, are capable, our hopes are coiled up so tight as to be deadly, or holy; turn us loose, sir, let us at it, let us show what we can do." p 312
...more

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Jul 29, 2017 Rose rated it it was amazing

I highly recommend the audiobook version which is voiced exceptionally by a cast of 166, including Nick Offerman, David Sederis, Keegan-Michael Key, and the author himself. It highlights the innovative--one could say 'novel'--approach Saunders has taken with the form.

More an audio-play, it turned me into a spectator among the spectors. Each voice demanded my full attention and consideration. I started listening to it with my eyes closed.

When it ended, I felt like I had attended a liminal perfor ...more

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