An historical-fiction, experimental novel concerning Civil War America, Lincoln in the Bardo tries to show us the death of William Wallace (Willy) Lincoln -- who succumbed to Typhoid fever during his father's presidency -- from the afterlife.

More accurately, Saunders' narration takes the perspective of spirits in the bardo, a technique on which there may be more to say than on the novel itself. Many chapters were tangential to the story, and -- this reviewer feels -- severely overshadowed by the irresistible mental comparison with the Purtagorio Cantos of Dante's Divine Comedy (#1420077). He found it odd, moreover, when some of the spirits inexplicably self-censored, and had to verify it wasn't just in his copy.

Don't get me wrong -- there were enjoyable aspects. The illuminations of the historical elements from primary source newspaper reports and contemporaneous biographies may be enough to perk up the amateur historian. In fact, such descriptions painted a lurid and glistening portrait of the lavish White House banquet thrown by the Lincolns as young Willy lay in the Prince of Wales room, perishing -- a memorable part -- which framed the rest of the story. The dozen-or-so descriptions of the president's physical demeanor, his lanky stature, his craggy face, taken also from primary sources, painted him as a kind of multi-faced chimera.

If one is being honest, it isn't often that one makes it to the end of a novel on a faint hope that s/he will eventually 'get it,' but this reviewer did for Lincoln, probably because the concept hooked his attention and he found it was hard to peel his gaze from the scenes of the afterlife.