Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders *** (of 4)

bar·do

ˈbärdō/

noun

1. (in Tibetan Buddhism) a state of existence between death and rebirth, varying in length according to a person's conduct in life and manner of, or age at, death.

Abraham Lincoln's son Willie died of typhoid fever during the midst of a party at the White House.  While guests were sipping imported wines, poor William expired leaving his mother inconsolably depressed and his father, the President of the United States without hope or happiness.  The party, the mindsets of Abe and Mary Todd, and descriptions of William's illness are detailed with exquisite clarity with extracts of historical texts.  In the meanwhile, in a nearby bardo a huge cast of characters, not unlike those in Thornton Wilder's Our Town, grapple with the arrival of Willie to their cemetery where the large cast is neither dead, nor alive, nor fully aware of their own condition.  They bicker and prod, mingle and show off, apparently ad nauseam.  And then we are tossed back into a session with professional historians who describe Lincoln's personality, the Civil War, and relations between the races.  Back to the cemetery where a living Lincoln mourns his bardo-trapped son.  Back to the historians for historical excerpts on the doctor's attempts to save Willie.  To the bardo where ghosts try to keep Willie from being swallowed by cemetery vines and to Lincoln's biographers who describe the President in such detail we can see the lines of sorrow deepening across his brow.  And then, of course, Lincoln is shot and the bardo chorus must respond...