Lincoln in the Bardo

In George Saunders' first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, Honest Abe is only a minor character. The main characters are a multitude of ghosts that reside in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown. On one night in February, 1862, Lincoln visits the cemetery alone to see his recently departed son, Willie, who has died of typhoid.

Bardo is a Buddhist term for the state of existence between death and rebirth. The spirits in the cemetery, for one reason or another, have stayed there, and don't realize they are dead. They call their coffins "sick-boxes." They move about and converse, but can not be seen by mortals.

This may remind you of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, or the last scene of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, but Saunders gives his spooks a little more personality. The main two are Roger Bevins and Hans Vollmann, who are kind of the Huck and Tom of the group. I'm not completely sure of the details, but they try to keep Lincoln in the cemetery so Will can move on to the next plane (I think) by entering the president and trying to influence his thoughts.

Initially, the book is difficult to understand, but after a bit I got the rules and it became something of a page-turner. Saunders also quotes several nonfiction books to give us the background on Lincoln and Willie (I thought these were fictional until I recognized some of the works). Most may know that Lincoln was a sad man during the presidency--Willie was the second son he lost, and it devastated him. "The terror and consternation of the Presidential couple may be imagined by anyone who has ever loved a child, and suffered that dread intimation common to all parents, that Fate may not hold that life in as high a regard, and may dispose of it at will."

Though the book has the overarching sense of death, it can be quite lively in the interplay between ghosts. A married couple, the Barons, wander over from the poor person's cemetery, and their dialogue is full of profanity. The fence also does not keep out black people, including former slaves, so in death there is equality.

Lincoln in the Bardo is a very touching novel, and one can't help feel the emotions that run through it. Lincoln's sadness, and the ghosts' empathy, is extremely touching. "In the procession to Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown two white horses drew the hearse bearing the little boy who had known only happiness. But black horses drew the carriage in which sat the worn and grief-stricken President."

I checked and found that after Lincoln's death, Willie was removed and interred by his side in Springfield, Illinois. It should be noted that of his four sons, only Robert reached adulthood. The first lady, Mary Lincoln, endured a great deal of sorrow, and was probably clinically depressed.