Lincoln in the Bardo

Lincoln in the Bardo is an extremely unique piece of literature. It combines historical accounts of Lincoln during his time grieving his son Willie, age 11, with a fictional narrative about ghosts attempting to help Willie pass on from this mortal world. I found the story incredibly engaging and heartfelt, often contemplating how I would feel if I were to awaken in that Washington cemetery post-mortem. Is infinite time a blessing or a curse– forced to reflect on all of the legitimate time we were afforded? Is any afterlife a sham? If judgement is based on what actions we took as we lived, then what point is there to purgatory at all? There is much to consider when reading, and these moral quandaries kept me wanting more. While reading I often found myself reminded of the much more family friendly [b:The Graveyard Book 2213661 The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531295292l/2213661.SY75.jpg 2219449] by [a:Neil Gaiman 1221698 Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg]– where a vivacious young boy is raised and mentored by the undead residents of a nearby graveyard (a variation on [a:Rudyard Kipling 6989 Rudyard Kipling https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1550677494p2/6989.jpg]'s [b:The Jungle Book 77270 The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327873594l/77270.SY75.jpg 17441265]). Both books explore the hopeless side of attempting to live on after breathing your last breath. Much other media shows us how terrified people should be of undead spirits, when it's very possible that the spirits themselves are unhappy upon being forced to reflect on their unresolved lives. While I loved the story and themes, much could be said about the formatting and writing style of the book. I can appreciate wanting to create something unique, but Saunders has chosen to write in a style that reads unlike anything else I have encountered and is overall difficult to keep track of at times. The audiobook's cast of 166 voices makes it clear there are many characters, but to me also makes it clear the book would have worked well in a stage play format. Rather than hear each character speak in their voice, with an additional narrator providing outside context, we constantly change perspectives between characters and hear their accounts of the scene, including the dialogue of other characters in the same scene. There are also the shifting perspectives of historical accounts that provide context to the scene, which I do think work for the story, but the narrative sections become incredibly complicated as the book progresses. Overall, I think the story and historical context contained within the pages is extremely worth reading, but the way in which the story is delivered makes it difficult to fully appreciate. I would love to see this story adapted to an0ther format, possibly a stage play or television series. The book itself is very successful, but I think it should be even more widely appreciated.