Evelyn Freeling’s Reviews > Lincoln in the Bardo > Status Update

I found that to be a rather refreshing take on the themes that are often explored in stories around the afterlife, an aspect I personally have never thought of. Moving on and letting go in stories centered around grief is so prescribed and assumed to be the Right Thing. I love that Saunders challenges that in some ways.

The nice thing is even though the novel is 349 pages, I've been able to breeze through the read once I adjusted to the form. So far, I'm really enjoying the themes about holding on vs. moving on, to life and to grief. A point was made by one ghost that those who move on do so because they have nothing to hold onto, nothing so important to them, and that isn't necessarily something to admire.

Saunders set up a select few voices to be recognizable -Hands Voller, Willie Lincoln, Jane Ellis, Mrs. Bales, for example - so that i dont actually need to read who that voice is to know which is really impressive. But the way it hops so that the narration is driven by a sort of amalgous narrator definitely reminds me of Mrs. Dalloway and i have to wonder if that was an inspiration for this novel.

The form took a moment to get used to, but I find it really interesting, especially having read Mrs. Dalloway this week. The form centers around a sort of headhopping narration like Mrs. Dalloway, each ghost butting in to take over the story, to have their say.