Only three years later, I’ve read the it book of 2017!

I could have done with fewer poops and “pounding my SHARDS,” and at times the weird blend of schmaltz and sadism (as observed by one review I read in the Atlantic) did not work for me. Admittedly, I probably could have chosen a better time to read this than in the middle of a pandemic that has me thinking about death almost every waking moment.

There are some beautiful passages, some bizarre ones, and some nice Abraham Lincoln stuff that I liked as someone who once took an entire class on Lincoln’s coping with mental illness. And the full-cast audio production is as good as people insist it is.

But I found Lincoln in the Bardo difficult to enjoy even though I appreciated it.

Also, I am realizing that “books set in graveyards with ghosts as characters” is an unintentional wheelhouse of mine. The Graveyard Book. Spoon River Anthology. Lincoln in the Bardo. Might as well read A Fine and Private Place next.