Lincoln In The Bardo

 I listened to Lincoln In the Bardo  audiobook by George Saunders because I was impressed by the many readers of various parts. People like Susan Sarandon, Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, Ben Stiller, Don Cheadle, Julianne Moore and Rainn Wilson. In this very strange story Willie Lincoln, the President's son is dying while the White House is having a party. The Marine Band plays downstairs while Willie suffers from typhoid upstairs. Some of the book is based on fact. Various people are quoted for their opinions about the party and about the fullness of the moon that night. Willie dies the next day and is taken to a cemetery in Georgetown. Abraham Lincoln goes to the cemetery several times.  The President removes Willie's body from the coffin and holds him before putting him back. The part of the story that isn't based on fact is the bardo which is a limbo state between life and death; sort of like Purgatory. Normally children don't stay in the bardo long but Willie thinks his father is coming back to see him again. The other characters in the bardo feel sorry for Willie and encourage him to move on. The other people in the bardo don't realize they are dead. They call their coffins "sick boxes." They wander around the cemetery at night and rest in their sick boxes during the day. The bardo is a bizarre world full of exceptionally strange people. This book was a best seller and won many awards. I liked the depiction of the President's grief and uncertain feelings about the civil war. I could have done without the fantasy about the bardo.