I will return to my Into Africa series of blogs.
I intend in this blog to discuss books I’ve read recently. I’d love to discuss them. My first book review sets forth a few of my impressions of Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.
This haunting novel was not easy to get into, but once I did, and I admit I had to double back a few times, it was a most rewarding reading experience. There are 166 characters. I suppose one could categorize this book as historical fiction, with a heavy emphasis on “historical.” The book quotes from a few texts in the public domain, but makes up quotes create a sense of verisimilitude, quite effectively, I’d say. For quite some time I’ve been interested in the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps my favorite book about this period is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s A TEAM OF RIVALS: THE POLITICAL GENIUS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. That book brought home to me the extremely high mortality rate of children and women in childbirth in the nineteenth century. And so this imagined death and brief afterlife in the bardo of Willy Lincoln as well as the comparisons/commentary about the carnage of the Civil War were poignant.
Is there a book you want to discuss? Please let me know. If I can, I’ll post your book review on this site and invite discussion.
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Oh, yes. This novel wowed me greatly. Saunders is an immense talent. I’m happy he won the Booker for it, but surprised it didn’t also earn the Pulitzer.
As you know, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO lost out in 2017 for the Pulitzer to THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. We recognize the subjectivity in selecting award-winning books. But I take it you’re saying that this George Saunders book is better than the Colson Whitehead book. They are so very different, though they are both Civil War era books.