In Lincoln in the Bardo, author George Saunders uses extracts from historical writings about the death of the US president’s young son, Willie, mixing them with fictional voices.
LINCOLN IN THE BARDO
George Saunders
Bloomsbury
BY MIKE CROWL
In 1862, Abraham Lincoln's young son, Willie, died of a fever. It broke the president's heart, and he struggled to carry on with his presidential duties. The event was written up by a wide variety of observers (and many who claimed to be observers).
Saunders uses extracts from these historical writings and mixes them with dozens of fictional voices. According to the book, Willie's spirit somehow gets "caught'' in a halfway world (the Bardo of the title) between Earth and eternity. The fictional voices provide an extensive dialogue of this period when it seems that Willie's spirit will never leave the graveyard.
These voices come from people who refuse, like Willie, to believe they're dead. The result is that they remain in this transitional place; many unwilling to go further, many seeing the next step of the journey as anathema to them.
I had to go back and read the first 20 or so pages in order to realise what was happening in this book. It helps to pay attention to the names at the end of each bit of dialogue (at least in the beginning). Once you get to grips with Saunders' unusual approach ("a thrilling new form'', according to the blurb) the story makes sense.
In spite of the welter of ghosts refusing to believe they're dead and the wretched "forms'' of those who remain in this state, this is a positive book. Saunders doesn't try to paint any picture of what eternity is like (although one of the ghosts, a former clergyman, sees it in curiously childish Christian terms). The author's concern is with the way in which people, even in death, refuse to face the obvious.
The book is sad, humorous, warm, dreadful, compassionate. There are some obscene characters and scenes, which perhaps only tells us that the world is made up of the best and worst of people.
The unusual dialogue form of the book might seem off-putting but, in fact, it proves surprisingly readable.
Mike Crowl is a Dunedin author, musician and composer.
