RaveThe StrangerLincoln is about facing grief (something of a daily exercise for many of us) and is set during a moment of national schism. For those and many other reasons, it is the first essential novel of the Donald Trump era ... Saunders formats the book like an oral history, with short sections narrated by different denizens of the cemetery. This polyvocal narration plays to Saunders's strength with voice and turn of phrase, and gifts him with an enormous cast of characters ... In lesser hands, much of Lincoln in the Bardo—especially its last 40 pages—would be merely sentimental. But Saunders, as he's done for his entire career, pulls off something ardently, unapologetically humane. This is a strange and wonderful book, one that reminds us that we, individually and nationally, have persevered through tremendous suffering before, and will do so again.
