The long-awaited first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented
February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it i...
The long-awaited first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented
February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body.
From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.
Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?
George Saunders is the author of nine books, including Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won the inaugural Folio Prize (for the best work of fiction in English) and the Story Prize (best short story collection). He has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, the PEN/Malamud Prize for excellence in the short story, and was recently e...
George Saunders is the author of nine books, including Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won the inaugural Folio Prize (for the best work of fiction in English) and the Story Prize (best short story collection). He has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, the PEN/Malamud Prize for excellence in the short story, and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2013, he was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University.
The rich notes of the Marine Band in the apartments below came to the sick-room in soft, subdued murmurs, like the wild, faint sobbing of far-off spirits. (查看原文)
Matrons were collapsed here and there in armchairs. Drunken men examined paintings rather too intensely.
The thousand dresses, laid out so reverently that afternoon, flecks of dust brushed off carefully in doorways, hems gathered up for the carriage trip: where are they now?... As are the women who wore them so proudly in that transient moment of radiance. (查看原文)
It just so happened that the other day a colleague's father had passed away and I didn't attend the funeral. That kind of place always gives me the chill, with no disrespect. I think it's because I've never faced the loss of a loved one, I can't feel the pa...
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“And as the sun came up, we prayed, each within ourselves, our usual prayer: To still be here when the sun next set. And discover, in those first moments of restored movement, that we had again been granted the great mother-gift: Time. More time.” 用死亡...
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Loved the poignancy of the first quarter of this book, and amazed at how well the chapters comprised of quotations had worked. Tonally compassionate with his signature breezy dark humor. Saunders paints his refreshing metaphors with poetic tenderness and sw...
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0 有用 哦 2017-10-29 03:49:48
中间无数死魂灵进入林肯,集体体验了一把人类大同无我之境的极乐。结尾黑人的鬼魂与林肯同骑而乘走向曙光。这些就小说的处理来说,意图都太明显了(形式本身也不断在加剧做作感)。后半部叙事推进略牵强,就是你已经知道作者想要做什么了,就看着他编。这样把故事捏塑到一起,难怪得用鸡汤了。
0 有用 沐子戋 2017-11-08 00:20:08
进度11%,对于他到底要说什么老实说我有点懵……开始速读!
0 有用 wavyfly 2023-03-02 19:36:37 中国香港
6+2=8/10 這幾年排在《The Handmaid's Tale》後,速讀完立即精讀的第二本小說。 邊讀邊驚訝: “小說居然能這樣寫?!” “完全靠第三方交叉言語,怎麼能把劇情交代得如此淋漓盡致?” “這是舞臺劇劇本吧?” “這舞臺效果如何呈現?” 短篇小說作家第一次嘗試長篇,大膽的揚長避短,巧妙地用無數個短篇眾生相繪成精彩的浮世繪。 第一次被小說結構而不是故事折服,二月閱讀快感爆燈!... 6+2=8/10 這幾年排在《The Handmaid's Tale》後,速讀完立即精讀的第二本小說。 邊讀邊驚訝: “小說居然能這樣寫?!” “完全靠第三方交叉言語,怎麼能把劇情交代得如此淋漓盡致?” “這是舞臺劇劇本吧?” “這舞臺效果如何呈現?” 短篇小說作家第一次嘗試長篇,大膽的揚長避短,巧妙地用無數個短篇眾生相繪成精彩的浮世繪。 第一次被小說結構而不是故事折服,二月閱讀快感爆燈! (展开)
6 有用 Griet 2017-09-13 14:53:10
风格非常独特。奇特又引人入胜的阅读体验。今年的Man Booker long list读过的最喜欢的一本。
1 有用 机智勇敢昭昭昭 2018-03-31 02:08:14
看了一会儿其他人对这本书的评论,说实话,从图书馆借回家的时候,我是充满期待的。但我英文水平欠佳,实在属于没熬过头1/3,于是全盘看不下去的类型。“看不下去”,不见得是作者的问题,《百年孤独》我之前也看不下去,是扔在书架挣扎了好几年才在反反复复的阅读里体会到它的妙处。总之对这本书,诚实讲,我怀着非常沮丧的心情看了一点,弃掉。我知道是好作品,但可能真要几年后才能理解得到。