“Lincoln in the Bardo” is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It has tons of characters doing rambling monologues, but it also has a distinct story line that is fascinating and original. The audiobook is excellent as well. I loved reading and then listening to that book so much that I eagerly bought his book of short stories “Tenth of December” to which I had a similar reaction as you - didn’t quite get into them at first and found them all-over-the-place. However, it’s been over a year since I read it and I can still vividly remember many of the stories because they have some very original plots. Two of my sisters and my mom read it as well for our short-lived book club and what’s interesting is that we all had some very different understandings of the stories. For instance, half of us thought a character was killed in one of the stories and the other half interpreted the “killing” as only in the main character’s mind.