Bardo Or Not Bardo

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In each of these seven vignettes, someone dies and has to make their way through the Tibetan afterlife, also known as the Bardo. In the Bardo, souls wander for forty-nine days before being reborn, helped along on their journey by the teachings of the Book of the Dead. Unfortunately, Volodine's characters bungle their chances at enlightenment, with the recently dead choosing to waste away their afterlife sleeping, crying in empty bars or choosing to be reborn as an insignificant spider. And the still-living aren't much better off, making a mess of things too.

Reviews

"Funny, humane, and sympathetic to the silly creatures we humans are. The Dalai Lama himself would probably approve."&151;Kirkus Review "Volodine's novel is energetic, offbeat, fast-paced, and shows an off-kilter sense of humor. He writes with a comic purpose, populating his world with strange characters and inexplicable events and outcomes."&151;Eric Maroney, Colorado State University "[Volodine's] book is a hugely impressive imaginative feat. He creates worlds and atmospheres that are strange and unique yet thoroughly believable"Kevin Gildea, The Irish Times "Volodine puts us alloverachievers and slackers, religious and decidedly not'in the same boat, balanced between the dreadful and the useless, obligated to pretend not to care.'"Kristine Morris, Foreward Reviews

Author Bio

Antoine Volodine is the primary pseudonym of a French writer who has published twenty books under this name, several of which are available in English translation. He also publishes under the names Lutz Bassmann and Manuela Draeger. Most of his works take place in a post-apocalyptic world where members of the "post-exoticism" writing movement have all been arrested as subversive elements. Together, these works constitute one of the most inventive, ambitious projects of contemporary writing. J. T. Mahany is a graduate of the masters program in literary translation studies at the University of Rochester. He is currently translating several books by the enigmatic and intriguing French author Antoine Volodine while studying for his MFA at the University of Arkansas.