What in tarnation did I just listen to? I'm going to pat myself on the back a little for actually finishing this one. The concept of a chorus of different spirits and historical citations describing the aftereffects of the death of Abraham Lincoln's young son Willie was certainly intriguing, but overall I can't say I enjoyed the total experience. I did like trying to ID the varying voice actors (167 and all), and once I got used to the chapters dedicated to citing sources I could appreciate the intent to demonstrate how different witnesses can see and describe identical events differently (duh, historian here), but I still don't know what the point was. Death is sad, we don't know what will happen to us when we die and I guess acknowledging death will help us move on? Who knows.

The entire book is just sad. Lincoln grieving his son, and having the son's ghosts confused about his own death, calling his corpse a "worm" and his casket a "sick-box" and not being able to hug his father is heartbreaking. So, good on you Saunders for making me real bummed.

My favorite chapter, if I could call it a 'favorite,' was the list of citations about the embalming process that could have been lifted from my research notes on the creation of the funeral industry in the late 1800s. Thrilling!

There was also a lot of gross sexual stuff that felt completely unnecessary. Did one of our main ghosts really need to be wandering around with a massive boner for the entire run of the book? Did I need to listen to Lena Dunham voice a hyper-sexual young girl who in death could only talk about all the men who wanted to fuck her and never got to? Meh.

Literary achievement unlocked; I will never read or listen to this book again.