tbr

Would Abraham Lincoln have liked this book? Would he appreciate a writer today getting into his head, especially about something so personal like the death of a son? Willie Lincoln dies and is trapped in the bardo with many other ghosts while his dad visits the cemetery. George Saunders basically invents a new way a novel can be written here. Using historical citations, some real, some pure fiction. Also ghosts, many many ghosts. With all the citations, it's tough to tell what is real and what is fiction (of course that is the point here -- even describing the moon on the night of one of Lincoln's parties, everyone is describing the moon differently.) But I like to judge a writer based on their actual writing and how to do that when it is half citations? I tried my amateur "historian's" skills at Googling the writers cited and I would say about 47 I couldn't find evidence of and 55 were sources I could actually find give or take a few. (Of course, Saunders probably had a few impossible to find sources at his disposal.) I even saw one article online citing some of Saunders clearly fake sources which makes me cringe a bit, so there is a problem like that -- down the line, will all of this read as fact? ie: last year's 'Underground Railroad' by Colson Whitehead making quite a few people realize that there wasn't actually an underground railroad. A book should either be stated as fact or fiction but that is a line in the sand that can constantly be shifting. This book is entirely unique, filled with heart, tragedy and humor. Lots of magical realism... but usually involving ghosts. So many characters here but I feel they were equally represented somehow. I'm not sure why three main narrators had to constantly switch, almost every line, other than to create a ton of white space in the book. Aren't Bevins, Vollman and Thomas essentially collaborating on the same story here? And what is the purpose of including so many sources? If I can't tell what is true and what is written by Saunders, doesn't that cheapen both Saunders writing and the original sources? Overall, despite the entirely new yet odd format, I liked where this book went and how it all tied together.