Thanks to my sister Donna Jean, who passed it along to me, I just finished reading a great but crazy book Lincoln in the Bardo.
I say crazy because the author tells the story of Willie Lincoln’s death and relates it almost as a play with many different actors/voices chiming in. That these voices are from a weird assortment of lost souls trapped in a version of purgatory makes it all the more crazy.
At first I didn’t care for how it was constructed because the voices bop around so much that it is a little annoying and hard to follow. However, once I became familiar with the style, and got on their wave length so to speak, I found myself able to go along with the action.
Still, it’s a trippy sort of read. Donna told me that a couple of folks in her book club said they just couldn’t get into it and gave up trying to read it. I admit that I was close to cutting and running a couple of times, but am now glad I stayed with it.
Another reason it held my interest had to do with where the action takes place. Georgetown’s Oak Hill Cemetery is one I am familiar with having spent some time roaming around its grounds. (For reasons I haven’t bothered trying to figure out, I kind of enjoy prowling around old graveyards.) And now, having read the book, I may have to make a return visit just to check out the Carroll crypt where Willie was temporarily stashed. From the sounds of it, I won’t be the only visitor to Oak Hill (click here for story) .
Check out the author’s description of his novel in the following video. Pay particular attention at the 1:48 mark where he describes the voices of the dead spirits as follows: “the Bardo beings are a little bit like a drunk at a bar – you’re only part yourself, you’re almost like a broken record. Your personhood gets a little degraded by your urge to repeat. So it’s a little bit of a hellish realm because they can not not tell their stories……”
Having been around my share of bar room drunks who can not NOT tell their stories, I know exactly what George is referring to! Maybe I’ll write a similar novel and title my version of passing into the afterlife Buzzy in the Bardo.