Lincoln in the Bardo
Maybe it's because I've spent the last year learning how to sit with uncertainty, but that's the theme of this book that really rose to the forefront for me. It's all about how that fear of uncertainty leads into a fear of change (and ultimately a fear of death), which just leaves you stuck. It's about learning to embrace uncertainty, on both small and large issues, so you can get yourself unstuck. And it's about using the things we can be certain of the help ground us as we walk off into the unknown.
Most of the book takes place in a cemetery over the course of one night. Abraham Lincoln's young son has just died and been buried. The other ghosts in the graveyard are urging him to move on, even as they themselves fear to move on. He's reluctant, though, thanks to a visit from his father and the promise of future visits.
The telling of the story is interesting, and plays in to the theme of uncertainty, even as it obscures the actual events. The various ghosts take turns telling the story, often describing each others' actions. The only time they tell their own stories is when they're reflecting on their lives, on the memories that are holding them here. And so the all take turns describing events, occasionally interrupting and talking over each other, occasionally offering conflicting views.
The conflicting views appear in other sections of the story as well. There are chapters that take place outside the cemetery, describing Lincoln's son's lingering illness and death. Saunders uses snippets of historical documents to describe these scenes, sentences taken from newspapers, reports, personal letters, diaries, etc. Many of them are actual historical documents, some of them are fabricated by the author. There's no indication of which are which. And these snippets often provide contradictory versions of events, as well. People can't even agree on something as simple as whether the moon was shining or obscured by clouds.
It's frustrating, but it enhances this idea that there's a lot we can never know and we have to find a way to be okay with that. If you read enough sources, talk to enough people, you'll come to an understanding of the general gist of what happened. But everyone sees things differently, focuses on different details, prioritizes different things. So you can never trust any single source to give you the whole truth.
Which is not to say that everything is uncertain. Lincoln's love for his son, and his grief at his death, are evident throughout the story. Certain facts are completely verifiable. But a lot of the story is left ambiguous. All together it serves as a reminder that you can't always know what's going to happen, but you have to keep going anyway. When I picked up this book, I was worried that it would be too heavy, but it ended up being exactly what I needed to read.
Most of the book takes place in a cemetery over the course of one night. Abraham Lincoln's young son has just died and been buried. The other ghosts in the graveyard are urging him to move on, even as they themselves fear to move on. He's reluctant, though, thanks to a visit from his father and the promise of future visits.
The telling of the story is interesting, and plays in to the theme of uncertainty, even as it obscures the actual events. The various ghosts take turns telling the story, often describing each others' actions. The only time they tell their own stories is when they're reflecting on their lives, on the memories that are holding them here. And so the all take turns describing events, occasionally interrupting and talking over each other, occasionally offering conflicting views.
The conflicting views appear in other sections of the story as well. There are chapters that take place outside the cemetery, describing Lincoln's son's lingering illness and death. Saunders uses snippets of historical documents to describe these scenes, sentences taken from newspapers, reports, personal letters, diaries, etc. Many of them are actual historical documents, some of them are fabricated by the author. There's no indication of which are which. And these snippets often provide contradictory versions of events, as well. People can't even agree on something as simple as whether the moon was shining or obscured by clouds.
It's frustrating, but it enhances this idea that there's a lot we can never know and we have to find a way to be okay with that. If you read enough sources, talk to enough people, you'll come to an understanding of the general gist of what happened. But everyone sees things differently, focuses on different details, prioritizes different things. So you can never trust any single source to give you the whole truth.
Which is not to say that everything is uncertain. Lincoln's love for his son, and his grief at his death, are evident throughout the story. Certain facts are completely verifiable. But a lot of the story is left ambiguous. All together it serves as a reminder that you can't always know what's going to happen, but you have to keep going anyway. When I picked up this book, I was worried that it would be too heavy, but it ended up being exactly what I needed to read.
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