Norman reviewed Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Review of 'Lincoln in the Bardo' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I'm thorn. I like it, but I keep thinking about the things it tried to do but, for me, made it uneven. the narration of the events on the voices of many narrators seems like a gimmick that helps the rhythm of the story, but sometimes breaks it. Some narrators are just plain voices, no characters, as the three main ones. And it is difficult to keep that up, either reading or, I suppose, at the moment of writing something like this.
That being said... Could a death be different from another? Lincoln, the President, thinks with heavy heart about his deceased child, and the others killed in the war. That empty void of love, the absence of his loved one is something many others are going through at the same time, because of that war. Could a death be different? could his sorrow be greater because his son is …
I'm thorn. I like it, but I keep thinking about the things it tried to do but, for me, made it uneven. the narration of the events on the voices of many narrators seems like a gimmick that helps the rhythm of the story, but sometimes breaks it. Some narrators are just plain voices, no characters, as the three main ones. And it is difficult to keep that up, either reading or, I suppose, at the moment of writing something like this.
That being said... Could a death be different from another? Lincoln, the President, thinks with heavy heart about his deceased child, and the others killed in the war. That empty void of love, the absence of his loved one is something many others are going through at the same time, because of that war. Could a death be different? could his sorrow be greater because his son is just eleven? And, at the same time, weighting down this things are the three main narrators who risk everything they are to help a boy stranded between two worlds. Many other voices set the rules of this Bardo (that is the place between life and death), and those other voices, some of them, just tell the world as they lived on it, and those little pieces, sometimes, make the whole of it. This is why they're fighting. Not only the Civil war, but the one to save a child's soul.
I found it hard on the few first pages, because you have to give something to this book, but at moments the superb narration of things that are not said just punch one's gut really hard. The figure of Abraham Lincoln battles, too, with some pieces of notes of people talking about him. And not everything is about praise, but, maybe, unfair criticism that, also, hits very hard.
I ended the book just wanting to know more about this tall figure. About his burden, about how true (or not) is this fact of him visiting the corpse of his child in the middle of the war.
I really like this novel. But, still, I think some of those voices were just noise interfering with something greater.
Well, that's just me.
