SUNDAY BOOKS & CULTURE: Fiction
Morality, mortality, and a host of angels and ghost make for compelling reading, says Penny Parrish of George Saunders' newest other-worldly title.
VIGIL
By George Saunders
Published by Random House (January 27, 2026)
Paperback $22.60
Audiobook $14.99
Reviewed by Penny A Parrish
In 2017, I read Saunders’ award-winning book Lincoln in the Bardo. The story revolved around Abraham Lincoln holding the body of his 11-year old son Willie after he died of typhus. The setting is a graveyard filled with ghosts who hold lengthy conversations about life, death and by doing so, try to help Willie past the bardo (an intermediate, purgatory-like state after death) to eternity. I loved the book.
Vigil shows that Saunders may be positioning himself to become the Charles Dickens of modern spirits. Once again, ghosts/angels, or those from the more unseemly side, frequent the pages.
K. J. Boone is a man of 87, dying of cancer. Although he cannot talk or move his body, his mind can interact with those who haunt his deathbed. His guide to the other side is Jill “Doll” Blaine, who has helped to transport 343 souls to their final reward. Her role is to provide comfort and help the dying to review their life and atone for their sins.
That’s not going to happen with K. J. He was the CEO of an oil company, an industrialist who polluted the planet and falsified research about climate change. He’s a scoundrel, says the Frenchman (a fellow spirit) to Jill: “Rather than comforting him, I advise you to lead him, as quickly as possible, to contrition, shame and self-loathing.” “Well, thanks for the advice,” says Jill.
The Frenchman should know – he invented the internal combustion engine in the mid-19th century and is appalled by the damage it has done to the planet. Various others who knew or worked for Boone – all dead now – come and go and share their (negative) opinions.
Ironically, next door to Boone’s house a wedding is in progress. Although she should be staying by her charge, Jill keeps going over there, watching people celebrate, dance, drink, and enjoy life. She relives memories about her brief time on earth, and rues all she missed. Jill died at age 22 on a day when she borrowed her husband’s car. He was a cop, and someone had planted a bomb underneath. And where is her husband now?
This is a hard book to review because it is so unusual and wacky. But it makes readers think about their own morality and mortality, about what they would say (or not say) on their final journey. It’s not as good as Lincoln in the Bardo, but these ghosts/angels made me laugh, cry and ponder. Perhaps that in itself makes this a good one to read.
Penny A Parrish is a local writer and photographer. You can see her pictures online at her website.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
