Bardo or Not Bardo

by Antoine Volodine, J. T. Mahany (Translator)

Overview

"Irreducible to any single literary genre, the Volodinian cosmos is skillfully crafted, fusing elements of science fiction with magical realism and political commentary."—Nicholas Hauck, Music & Literature

One of Volodine's funniest books, Bardo or Not Bardo takes place in his universe of failed revolutions, radical shamanism, and off-kilter nomenclature.

In each of these seven vignettes, someone dies and has to make his 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, or choosing to be reborn as an insignificant spider. The still-living aren't much better off, making a mess of things in their own ways, such as erroneously reciting a Tibetan cookbook to a lost comrade instead of the holy book.

Once again, Volodine has demonstrated his range and ambition, crafting a moving, hysterical work about transformations and the power of the book.

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, such as Minor Angels, and Writers. He also publishes under the names Lutz Bassmann and Manuela Draeger.

J. T. Mahany is a graduate of the Master of Arts in Literary Translation Studies program at the University of Rochester and is currently studying for his MFA at the University of Arkansas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781940953335
Publisher:	Open Letter
Publication date:	04/12/2016
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

04/04/2016
The afterlife is just as senseless, erratic, and cruel as life itself in Volodine's darkly funny novel-in-stories, set in and around the Bardo—in Tibetan Buddhism, a realm through which the spirits of the recently dead travel, toward either rebirth and suffering or transcendence through "fusion with the Clear Light." The living offer guidance during this dangerous journey by reading aloud from the Bardo Thödol, but ineptitude reigns across all worlds. In "Last Stand Before the Bardo," an incompetent assassin reads to his victim from "an anthology of surrealist aphorisms" instead, while the dead soldier in "Glouchenko" spends his time in the Bardo napping instead of "concentrating... on the means of... liberation," and as a result is reborn as a macaque. The intricacies and intrigues of Communist cells are parodied in "Schlumm" and "Puffky," in which two members of "The Organization," each believing himself to be tasked with eliminating the other, are actually stuck in the Bardo together, baffled and disoriented, losing track of their individual identities. The merging of Buddhist ideas of transcendence and communist striving toward utopia yields poignancy in "Dadokian" and "At the Bardo Bar," as a jailed revolutionary, a madman, and an unfunny clown all find themselves forming unlikely friendships. In the Bardo or out of it, "each of us is mired in his own awful dream," and in Volodine's universe of echoes, phantoms, and repetition, these temporary bonds are the only genuine reality. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Funny, humane, and sympathetic to the silly creatures we humans are. The Dalai Lama himself would probably approve."—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."—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 all—overachievers 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

From the Publisher

2016-01-21
Ever goofy, ever surreal French novelist Volodine (Post-Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven, 2015, etc.) rewrites the rules of Tibetan Buddhism, using characters that might have been drafted from the second string of Waiting for Godot. Bardo, as Laurie Anderson's recent film Heart of a Dog reminds us, is a kind of limbo where the dead await reincarnation for seven weeks, a place where nothing much happens while the soul gathers its wits and chooses its next earthly vehicle. Volodine turns this on its head: plenty happens, even if the departed can't quite suss it out. "The Bardo," says one Babloïev by way of helpful explanation to the recently dead Glouchenko. "The intermediary world. We're going to float and walk around here for forty-nine days." Unimpressed, Glouchenko, apparently a devotee of slang, replies, "Cut the crap. You're barking up the wrong tree if you think you can just jerk me around." It turns out, as another intermediary, Mario Schmunk, notes, that poor Glouchenko has been dead for four weeks and, thick as he is, still hasn't gotten around to realizing it, prompting a mysterious voice to cut through the fog: "It is high time that you liberate yourself, Glouchenko! Make an effort, Glouchenko!" Glouchenko is not an effortful fellow, though, which may just get him reborn as a monkey. Neither are some of the other denizens of the Bardo, some of whom take Bardo as an excuse to have a nice nap. In this vignette-layered novel, Volodine explores a fruitful premise throughout, namely, that if some of our lives are thoughtlessly lived and some of our deaths downright embarrassing, why should not death be thoughtless and shameface-making? Just ask Big Grümscher and Little Blumschi, "the kings of laughter," clowns who aren't laughing so much now that the monks are shouting out sutras from the Book of the Dead…. Funny, humane, and sympathetic to the silly creatures we humans are. The Dalai Lama himself would probably approve.

Kirkus Reviews