Bardo or not Bardo
By: Antoine Volodine ; translated from the French by J.T. Mahany
Contributors: Mahany, J. T., translator
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 165
ISBN-13: 9781940953335
Subjects: Buddhism; Future life; Fiction
Description: "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 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, 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"--
Table of contents: title: Last stand before the bardo; title: Glouchenko; title: Schlumm; title: The bardo of the Medusa; title: Puffky; title: Dadokian; title: At the bardo bar.