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A Short Stay in Hell
An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he’ll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life.
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.
110 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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September 4, 2018
i wasn't sure i was going to like this one. the concept is ripped from a borges story about a library containing an infinite number of books; every permutation of every possible arrangement of letters; shelves and shelves of endless volumes, many of which are pure gibberish.
and in this book, this is one of many possible hells.
it seems zoroastrianism was the one true religion. oops. sorry all you suckers and mormons and buddhists - you are all going to hell. but hell is not forever, all you need to do is locate the story of your own life in this library, and you are allowed to leave. that's all.
but in the library of babel, that could be more difficult than you might think. and what is your "true" biography?
There's a second by second account of our lives, probably in multiple volumes, a minute by minute account, an hour by hour, a day by day. There's one that covers the events of our lives as viewed by our mothers, one by our fathers, one by our neighbors, one by our dogs. There must be thousands of our biographies here. Which one do they want, I wonder?
good luck finding even one of those. good luck finding a book in which you recognize a paragraph, a phrase, a word.... most of the books will just look like this: sdkfhsdihfdofgnlkdfgnodhgfgn
and so on and so on.
borges kind of leaves me cold. i find his stories to be interesting cerebral exercises, but their execution leaves me as a reader unmoved. but i liked this spin on borges very much. it was wonderfully sad and helpless, but it is also a testament to the indomitable human spirit and the hope that someday it will all get better...even in hell.
because, frankly, hell doesn't sound that bad, to me. at first. you get to eat any kind of food you want, you get to meet new people, you can form romantic attachments that last billions of years, sleep and wake refreshed and renewed the next day, even if you "die" in hell. but there is also danger, violence, drunkenness, people who believe they have all the answers, mini-cults, and kidnappings.and you probably ain't never going to find your book.
and then losing someone in hell is way worse than losing someone in the real world. losing someone on earth, you know it is finished. they are dead, and that is that and there is nothing you can do about it. losing someone in hell? well, they are somewhere and somehow you could still find them. and it is that hope that is the true hell, the crushing blow. because it is so vast, you could spend billions of years, knowing that they could be there, one story above you.... one more story... one more.....
heartbreaking.
there is a nice readers' advisory angle to this, too. because how hard is it, when faced with all the books that are published today, to find one that you really want to read?? it is easier than hell, sure, because most of the books are not written in gibberish, but i have read some recently that may as well have been. and it is frustrating, and difficult to read book after book that just doesn't do it for you. imagine that, multiplied by a zillion zillion.
good thing i have such highly developed RA skills.
i should be okay in hell.
provided i can find at least one book to read.
come to my blog!
and in this book, this is one of many possible hells.
it seems zoroastrianism was the one true religion. oops. sorry all you suckers and mormons and buddhists - you are all going to hell. but hell is not forever, all you need to do is locate the story of your own life in this library, and you are allowed to leave. that's all.
but in the library of babel, that could be more difficult than you might think. and what is your "true" biography?
There's a second by second account of our lives, probably in multiple volumes, a minute by minute account, an hour by hour, a day by day. There's one that covers the events of our lives as viewed by our mothers, one by our fathers, one by our neighbors, one by our dogs. There must be thousands of our biographies here. Which one do they want, I wonder?
good luck finding even one of those. good luck finding a book in which you recognize a paragraph, a phrase, a word.... most of the books will just look like this: sdkfhsdihfdofgnlkdfgnodhgfgn
and so on and so on.
borges kind of leaves me cold. i find his stories to be interesting cerebral exercises, but their execution leaves me as a reader unmoved. but i liked this spin on borges very much. it was wonderfully sad and helpless, but it is also a testament to the indomitable human spirit and the hope that someday it will all get better...even in hell.
because, frankly, hell doesn't sound that bad, to me. at first. you get to eat any kind of food you want, you get to meet new people, you can form romantic attachments that last billions of years, sleep and wake refreshed and renewed the next day, even if you "die" in hell. but there is also danger, violence, drunkenness, people who believe they have all the answers, mini-cults, and kidnappings.and you probably ain't never going to find your book.
and then losing someone in hell is way worse than losing someone in the real world. losing someone on earth, you know it is finished. they are dead, and that is that and there is nothing you can do about it. losing someone in hell? well, they are somewhere and somehow you could still find them. and it is that hope that is the true hell, the crushing blow. because it is so vast, you could spend billions of years, knowing that they could be there, one story above you.... one more story... one more.....
heartbreaking.
there is a nice readers' advisory angle to this, too. because how hard is it, when faced with all the books that are published today, to find one that you really want to read?? it is easier than hell, sure, because most of the books are not written in gibberish, but i have read some recently that may as well have been. and it is frustrating, and difficult to read book after book that just doesn't do it for you. imagine that, multiplied by a zillion zillion.
good thing i have such highly developed RA skills.
i should be okay in hell.
provided i can find at least one book to read.
come to my blog!
January 6, 2024
HOLY SHIT
WHAT THE HELL
MY HEAD IS SPINNING
FULL REVIEW TO COME
WHAT THE HELL
MY HEAD IS SPINNING
FULL REVIEW TO COME
August 22, 2015
Angst is not a mere intellectual exercise. Existentialism is not just a philosophical movement. Steven L. Peck's A Short Stay in Hell drives this into the heart of the reader like no other existentialist work.
I've been eyeball-deep in readings on existentialism lately (research for a novel and for my owndespair edification), including William Barrett's outstanding Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy and Sartre's play No Exit, among others. But while I've enjoyed Barrett's study, it is just that, a study in existential philosophy. And Sartre's play seems just a touch contrived (I mean just a touch, too - it did not spoil the play).
But this . . . this little novella kicked my emotional depths right in the crotch. What could have been a work buried in academic gymnastics turns the rational boundaries by which one anesthetizes ones real self completely inside out. And it hurts. Oh, Ahura Mazda, it hurts! This is a novella which, if you have ever been in love and have then been involuntarily separated from the one you love, will tear your heart apart! If you are sensitive to the injustice of the world, your short stay in hell with Soren Johannson is going to be rather unpleasant.
This isn't your typical conception of Hell. Hell here is modeled after, or at least pays homage to, Borges' "Library of Babel". And unlike the Christian hell, from which there is no escape (without a guide's help, at least), there is a way out. You merely need to peruse the 7.16^1,297,369 light year wide and deep library and find the one book that contains the complete story of your life, from beginning to end. How long can it take, really? Really . . . wrap your brain around that number. This is the size of the library that contains the books through which you must look to find your escape from Hell. This might take a while.
The upside is that you live forever! And you can never die! Or, rather, you can die, but you always come back the next day. This is not without pain, however, and Johannson experiences pain in spades, especially when he finds himself .
But physical death, painful as it is, is nothing compared to the emotional pain of falling deeply in love and losing your lover (not that hard in a place as vast as this). You know that the one you love is there, somewhere, because they can't die, either. But, once lost, what hope do you have of finding that one person again, really?
"Anticipation is a gift. Perhaps there is none greater. Anticipation is born of hope. Indeed it is hopes finest expression. In hope's loss, however, is the greatest despair."
Taken out of context, this quote seems hyperbolic or even pithy. But in the context of the story, I can think of no more gut-wrenching, heart-twisting distillation of existentialism than this. It physically took my breath away when I read it. I gasped aloud and had to remind myself, for a split second, to breathe. It is that emotionally-charged, and a reminder of angst really feels like. A Short Stay in Hell won't give you the intellectual finesse of an examination such as Barrett's or the breadth of understanding that comes with a critical analysis of the philosophy and its history, but it will plunge you face-first down the heartbreaking abyss of what it means, what it feels like, to lose all hope.
Dante's Inferno (which I love, by the way, so don't take this as too derogatory) is a childrens' amusement park, in comparison. No need to abandon hope while entering Peck's Hell: It will be stripped from you whether you want it to be or not; just give it time. You've got all of eternity. Or, rather, all of eternity has you!
I've been eyeball-deep in readings on existentialism lately (research for a novel and for my own
But this . . . this little novella kicked my emotional depths right in the crotch. What could have been a work buried in academic gymnastics turns the rational boundaries by which one anesthetizes ones real self completely inside out. And it hurts. Oh, Ahura Mazda, it hurts! This is a novella which, if you have ever been in love and have then been involuntarily separated from the one you love, will tear your heart apart! If you are sensitive to the injustice of the world, your short stay in hell with Soren Johannson is going to be rather unpleasant.
This isn't your typical conception of Hell. Hell here is modeled after, or at least pays homage to, Borges' "Library of Babel". And unlike the Christian hell, from which there is no escape (without a guide's help, at least), there is a way out. You merely need to peruse the 7.16^1,297,369 light year wide and deep library and find the one book that contains the complete story of your life, from beginning to end. How long can it take, really? Really . . . wrap your brain around that number. This is the size of the library that contains the books through which you must look to find your escape from Hell. This might take a while.
The upside is that you live forever! And you can never die! Or, rather, you can die, but you always come back the next day. This is not without pain, however, and Johannson experiences pain in spades, especially when he finds himself .
But physical death, painful as it is, is nothing compared to the emotional pain of falling deeply in love and losing your lover (not that hard in a place as vast as this). You know that the one you love is there, somewhere, because they can't die, either. But, once lost, what hope do you have of finding that one person again, really?
"Anticipation is a gift. Perhaps there is none greater. Anticipation is born of hope. Indeed it is hopes finest expression. In hope's loss, however, is the greatest despair."
Taken out of context, this quote seems hyperbolic or even pithy. But in the context of the story, I can think of no more gut-wrenching, heart-twisting distillation of existentialism than this. It physically took my breath away when I read it. I gasped aloud and had to remind myself, for a split second, to breathe. It is that emotionally-charged, and a reminder of angst really feels like. A Short Stay in Hell won't give you the intellectual finesse of an examination such as Barrett's or the breadth of understanding that comes with a critical analysis of the philosophy and its history, but it will plunge you face-first down the heartbreaking abyss of what it means, what it feels like, to lose all hope.
Dante's Inferno (which I love, by the way, so don't take this as too derogatory) is a childrens' amusement park, in comparison. No need to abandon hope while entering Peck's Hell: It will be stripped from you whether you want it to be or not; just give it time. You've got all of eternity. Or, rather, all of eternity has you!
March 29, 2023
jesus fucking christ
March 27, 2012
Mormon Soren Johansson dies and wakes up in the afterlife, only to find that Zoroastrianism was the one true faith. He's then banished to a hell suitable for his rehabilitation needs: a library of near infinite size, containing every possible book ever written, one of which is his life story. Can Soren find that elusive book?
I got this book for free from the publisher, and normally that would make it feel like a homework assignment from a crabby teacher once the "free book" excitement wore off. Not so with this one. It's a damn good book.
A Short Stay in Hell reminds me of something Philip Jose Farmer would concoct after digging through some of Hermann Hesse's notes, or if Hermann Hesse tried writing Riverworld. Soren wakes up in hell with a perfect 25 year old body, gets free food from kiosks, and is resurrected when killed. Sounds Farmer-ish, right?
The library Soren wakes up in is based in part on Jorge Luis Borges Library of Babel. It's light-years tall, containing every 410 page book that could possibly ever be written. Needless to say, Soren's road to redemption isn't going to be a stroll down to the corner pub for a beer.
Lots of things happen in this slim volume. It explores what immortality would be like while performing a seemingly impossible task. I don't want to give too much away but there's a near-bottomless chasm between the two walls of the library and it gets heavy use.
Even though the first word I used in the summary is Mormon and Zoroastrianism also made an appearance, I wouldn't say it's religious fiction. It's more about one man dealing with an impossible task over an untold number of years. Still, he gets to read so it can't be all that bad...
Like I said, this book was pretty slim. About the only complaint I have would be that the writing was a bit rocky in the early going but it smoothed out after the prologue and really moved the story along. Other than that, I would have liked it to be three or four times this long. It's either a high 3 or a low 4. I'm going to go with the 4.
I got this book for free from the publisher, and normally that would make it feel like a homework assignment from a crabby teacher once the "free book" excitement wore off. Not so with this one. It's a damn good book.
A Short Stay in Hell reminds me of something Philip Jose Farmer would concoct after digging through some of Hermann Hesse's notes, or if Hermann Hesse tried writing Riverworld. Soren wakes up in hell with a perfect 25 year old body, gets free food from kiosks, and is resurrected when killed. Sounds Farmer-ish, right?
The library Soren wakes up in is based in part on Jorge Luis Borges Library of Babel. It's light-years tall, containing every 410 page book that could possibly ever be written. Needless to say, Soren's road to redemption isn't going to be a stroll down to the corner pub for a beer.
Lots of things happen in this slim volume. It explores what immortality would be like while performing a seemingly impossible task. I don't want to give too much away but there's a near-bottomless chasm between the two walls of the library and it gets heavy use.
Even though the first word I used in the summary is Mormon and Zoroastrianism also made an appearance, I wouldn't say it's religious fiction. It's more about one man dealing with an impossible task over an untold number of years. Still, he gets to read so it can't be all that bad...
Like I said, this book was pretty slim. About the only complaint I have would be that the writing was a bit rocky in the early going but it smoothed out after the prologue and really moved the story along. Other than that, I would have liked it to be three or four times this long. It's either a high 3 or a low 4. I'm going to go with the 4.
October 15, 2012
Peck uses the Borges story "The Library of Babel" as inspiration for his own take on a version of Hell in this thought-provoking novella.
As the story opens, Soren Johansson finds himself dressed in a robe, sitting on a metal folding chair with a view of men and women who are screaming while swimming in a lake of fire. He soon learns from Xandern, the 8-foot tall demon who welcomes him, that he has died, that Zoroastrianism is the one true religion, and that he is being sent to a specific version of hell, selected especially for him, until he has been "corrected" enough to go to heaven.
Soren finds himself whisked away into an unimaginably vast library, based on Borges' Library of Babel, where he has to locate his life story among the endless shelves of volumes. He is not alone -- other people have been assigned the same task. Soon, they all realize how much more difficult their quest is than they ever imagined it to be. In the process, Peck creates a microcosm of human history, as he describes how Soren and his companions deal with these challenges -- through intimate relationships, organized study, cults, violence, compassion, loneliness, pain, sorrow, hopelessness, and love.
Peck's novella first captured my imagination for the quirky details he uses to flesh out this vision of Hell. (He sold me from the start with the triumph of Zoroastrianism.) However, he kept my attention through his deft handling of key aspects of the human condition. The novella has stayed with me, as I continue to explore and consider the implications of the questions he raises.
As the story opens, Soren Johansson finds himself dressed in a robe, sitting on a metal folding chair with a view of men and women who are screaming while swimming in a lake of fire. He soon learns from Xandern, the 8-foot tall demon who welcomes him, that he has died, that Zoroastrianism is the one true religion, and that he is being sent to a specific version of hell, selected especially for him, until he has been "corrected" enough to go to heaven.
Soren finds himself whisked away into an unimaginably vast library, based on Borges' Library of Babel, where he has to locate his life story among the endless shelves of volumes. He is not alone -- other people have been assigned the same task. Soon, they all realize how much more difficult their quest is than they ever imagined it to be. In the process, Peck creates a microcosm of human history, as he describes how Soren and his companions deal with these challenges -- through intimate relationships, organized study, cults, violence, compassion, loneliness, pain, sorrow, hopelessness, and love.
Peck's novella first captured my imagination for the quirky details he uses to flesh out this vision of Hell. (He sold me from the start with the triumph of Zoroastrianism.) However, he kept my attention through his deft handling of key aspects of the human condition. The novella has stayed with me, as I continue to explore and consider the implications of the questions he raises.
June 21, 2016
"Finite does not mean much if you can't tell any practical difference between it and infinite."
- Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell
I have bemoaned for years the sad state of Mormon letters. Do I need to comment here that I don't really consider Ender's Game or Twilight to be literature? There have been a couple close calls. I personally really liked Brady Udall's books (The Lonely Polygamist, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, and Letting Loose the Hounds: Stories) and I've heard good things about Levi Peterson, but have yet to read him. There is also Walter Kirn, but I'm certain he wouldn't want his stint as a Mormon to throw him into consideration for Monarch of Mormon Lit (and to be fair, I doubt Steven Peck or Brady Udall would either). There is Brian Evenson who left BYU after the administration basically choked on his first book of stories (Altmann's Tongue: Stories and a Novella).
After this small group the ground seems to really dry up. I wasn't exactly desperate to find a Mormon author who wrote well. I kinda just stopped caring. It wasn't like it was some endless quest that had meaning for me. It had none. It seemed absurd to try. My people seemed largely unable to deal with the complexity, absurdity, despair, nuance, and self-reflection necessary (I thought) to write really, REALLY good fiction. So, it was in this frame of mind that I made a dark comment about the state of Mormon letters to a friend named Kevin. The next time we met, he tossed this book at me.
I was skeptical. I shelved it among the 2,000+ other books I owned, but had yet to read. I read probably 300 books between the time Kevin gave this book to me and the time I decided I was ready to read it. I'm not sure why I waited so long. The book isn't long. Hell. It is barely a novella. I think it weighs in at 104 pages. If it was a fish, you might be tempted to throw it back. It was ironic that I had more reluctance to read this novel than I had to read Proust's entire In Search of Lost Time. But today, I found it, opened it, and started reading. In about two hours I was done and I was changed. I was wrong. It was like discovering a whole room full of LDS monkeys had written me 1,000 notes and I just read one that said: "Oh, ye of little wraith."
Anyway, enough preamble. Why did I enjoy this short book about a short stay in Hell?
1. Peck is an evolutionary ecologist with a background in biomathematics and entomology. So, it seems two (Peck, Evenson) of my three (Peck, Evenson, Udall) contenders for best living writers of Mormon Literature* are either scientists (Peck) or sons of scientists (Evenson's father William E Evenson is an emeritus professor of physics at BYU and is responsible, along with Duane E. Jeffery, of producing Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements). Achtung Mormon mothers. If you really want your little kid to grow up to write the Great American Mormon Novel, either marry a Physics professor, send your kid to school to study statistics and evolution, or surround her with a billion theoretical monkeys.
2. I love Peck's fluency with both the history of Borges, "The Total Library", "The Library of Babel", and the whole idea of large numbers, infinite monkey theorem, etc. He appears to by a polymath with an emphasis on math.
3. For me, what sets Peck apart with this novel, is his ability to turn the complexity and absurdity of large numbers into a believable Hell and nuance the Hell out of it. In many ways 'A Short Stay in Hell' is one of the most economical horror stories since H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. From time to time, this book seemed to also echo Edgar Allen Poe and Dan Simmons.
And, least you think I've gone completely out of my mind, 'A Short Stay in Hell' isn't perfect. It could have been longer. Peck also isn't a perfect prose stylist. He isn't writing at the level of Herman Melville, Vladimir Nabokov, or Virginia Woolf. But that is OK. I'm willing to grade the prose of his novella on a bit of a curve since I NEVER thought I would personally live to find and enjoy a book written by a Mormon. My search is over and I so I now quietly apologize to the wise Lord Ahura Mazda for any offense and await my death and judgement.
* I am purposefully not including Terry Tempest Williams in my list of Mormon writers of literature NOT because I'm a misogynist and don't think she writes valuable stuff, but because I think she is more of a memoirist and poet.
- Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell
I have bemoaned for years the sad state of Mormon letters. Do I need to comment here that I don't really consider Ender's Game or Twilight to be literature? There have been a couple close calls. I personally really liked Brady Udall's books (The Lonely Polygamist, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, and Letting Loose the Hounds: Stories) and I've heard good things about Levi Peterson, but have yet to read him. There is also Walter Kirn, but I'm certain he wouldn't want his stint as a Mormon to throw him into consideration for Monarch of Mormon Lit (and to be fair, I doubt Steven Peck or Brady Udall would either). There is Brian Evenson who left BYU after the administration basically choked on his first book of stories (Altmann's Tongue: Stories and a Novella).
After this small group the ground seems to really dry up. I wasn't exactly desperate to find a Mormon author who wrote well. I kinda just stopped caring. It wasn't like it was some endless quest that had meaning for me. It had none. It seemed absurd to try. My people seemed largely unable to deal with the complexity, absurdity, despair, nuance, and self-reflection necessary (I thought) to write really, REALLY good fiction. So, it was in this frame of mind that I made a dark comment about the state of Mormon letters to a friend named Kevin. The next time we met, he tossed this book at me.
I was skeptical. I shelved it among the 2,000+ other books I owned, but had yet to read. I read probably 300 books between the time Kevin gave this book to me and the time I decided I was ready to read it. I'm not sure why I waited so long. The book isn't long. Hell. It is barely a novella. I think it weighs in at 104 pages. If it was a fish, you might be tempted to throw it back. It was ironic that I had more reluctance to read this novel than I had to read Proust's entire In Search of Lost Time. But today, I found it, opened it, and started reading. In about two hours I was done and I was changed. I was wrong. It was like discovering a whole room full of LDS monkeys had written me 1,000 notes and I just read one that said: "Oh, ye of little wraith."
Anyway, enough preamble. Why did I enjoy this short book about a short stay in Hell?
1. Peck is an evolutionary ecologist with a background in biomathematics and entomology. So, it seems two (Peck, Evenson) of my three (Peck, Evenson, Udall) contenders for best living writers of Mormon Literature* are either scientists (Peck) or sons of scientists (Evenson's father William E Evenson is an emeritus professor of physics at BYU and is responsible, along with Duane E. Jeffery, of producing Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements). Achtung Mormon mothers. If you really want your little kid to grow up to write the Great American Mormon Novel, either marry a Physics professor, send your kid to school to study statistics and evolution, or surround her with a billion theoretical monkeys.
2. I love Peck's fluency with both the history of Borges, "The Total Library", "The Library of Babel", and the whole idea of large numbers, infinite monkey theorem, etc. He appears to by a polymath with an emphasis on math.
3. For me, what sets Peck apart with this novel, is his ability to turn the complexity and absurdity of large numbers into a believable Hell and nuance the Hell out of it. In many ways 'A Short Stay in Hell' is one of the most economical horror stories since H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. From time to time, this book seemed to also echo Edgar Allen Poe and Dan Simmons.
And, least you think I've gone completely out of my mind, 'A Short Stay in Hell' isn't perfect. It could have been longer. Peck also isn't a perfect prose stylist. He isn't writing at the level of Herman Melville, Vladimir Nabokov, or Virginia Woolf. But that is OK. I'm willing to grade the prose of his novella on a bit of a curve since I NEVER thought I would personally live to find and enjoy a book written by a Mormon. My search is over and I so I now quietly apologize to the wise Lord Ahura Mazda for any offense and await my death and judgement.
* I am purposefully not including Terry Tempest Williams in my list of Mormon writers of literature NOT because I'm a misogynist and don't think she writes valuable stuff, but because I think she is more of a memoirist and poet.
January 26, 2022
I could name a few things that build this novella up into something glorious, like the appropriation of Borges' Library of Babel, a smattering of Zoroastrianism, an existential horror written like an adaptation of that old movie, Defending Your Life, or the old adage about getting enough monkeys together to write one of Shakespeare's plays, but all of these are just elements.
The novella itself is a sucker punch to the gut.
I'm gobsmacked.
I might go on a little rage, telling everyone I know to stop what they're doing and pick this tale up and weep. Think about an afterlife that is closer to The Platform or an existential horror on par with The Squid Game. Make sure you're prepared to pick up a book or two.
And weep. :)
Muahahahahahaha SUCH A GOOD TALE.
The novella itself is a sucker punch to the gut.
I'm gobsmacked.
I might go on a little rage, telling everyone I know to stop what they're doing and pick this tale up and weep. Think about an afterlife that is closer to The Platform or an existential horror on par with The Squid Game. Make sure you're prepared to pick up a book or two.
And weep. :)
Muahahahahahaha SUCH A GOOD TALE.
December 19, 2023
A short stay in hell is of 104 pages, but it ended up being a long drawn out hell for me. I had zero takeaways or enjoyment reading this. How can such a short book make me feel like I've been slogging it for months. 🙌🏽 to everyone that loved it though. Moving on swiftly.
October 15, 2023
A tour of a literary hell worthy of Mephistopheles.
Sometimes fun and clever, at other times a devastating dissection of the human psyche, and when it gets going it goes hard.
The ending was like being hit with a baseball bat to the feelings.
A triple shot of nausea, cosmic horror and bleak despair.
I loved it.
9/10
Sometimes fun and clever, at other times a devastating dissection of the human psyche, and when it gets going it goes hard.
The ending was like being hit with a baseball bat to the feelings.
A triple shot of nausea, cosmic horror and bleak despair.
I loved it.
9/10
March 29, 2022
A 108 page long existential crisis.
July 4, 2016
Question: If you knew for a fact that not only was there a Hell but that there was a vast array of different types of Hell, how would you feel if you knew the Hell selected for you was a library?
If you are reading this review then it's obvious you are also a book lover so you are probably thinking the answer is a no-brainer.
All righty then! You need to read this novella and then tell me what you think after that.
Of course I didn't get into detail as to how a library could possibly be bad, let a lone any kind of Hell, but I will let the reader discover that for themselves. Let's just say, this story almost hurt my brain just trying to fathom the magnitude of suffering from something as incomprehensible as an existence that continues on for innumerable light years.
I really enjoyed this story. It peeled back my perspective like an onion and left me actually appreciating my mortality. If the man on the corner preaching Hell fire and brimstone ever reads this story I'm sure he will be altering his sermon.
December 27, 2016
I absolutely loved this book! It's a short read, but a unique one. It raises so many questions, and it haunts you long after you have finished reading it. It also calls into question the concepts of finite and infinite, and introduces numbers the size of which make my head hurt (not actually that hard to do--I'm an English teacher, so I'm befuddled by fairly small numbers, which these aren't).
It starts with a Mormon guy finding out, as everyone else is, that no matter what your religion was, it was the wrong one. Only Zoroastrianism will get you into Heaven, and how many people practice that? Everyone else is condemned to Hell. The good news is that Hell is not how it has been portrayed to many. There are no flames and imps with pitchforks, and it's not permanent. After a period of time, you can win your way out. Our protagonist, Soran Johanssen, will spend his period of penance in a library full of an infinite number of books. Wait! You say. Isn't this supposed to be Hell? Isn't Hell supposed to be bad? Are you sure this isn't Heaven? It's a library! But wait, children--you didn't let me finish. Out of this infinity of books, the percentage of ones that have the alphabet arranged in ways that make sense is extremely small. So, yeah, it's Hell! Imagine being in a library and seeing shelves that stretch as far as the eye can see: rows and rows of books, AND NOT ONE THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY READ! That, my friends, is HELL!
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Soren's job, like everyone else there, is to find the one book that is about him. It doesn't take long for the newly condemned to realize the futility of this enterprise. They have been tasked with the library version of finding the needle in the haystack. They start off bemoaning the fact that this might take up to ten years to accomplish, but later in the book, they have been searching for billions of years. Like I said, the numbers make my head hurt!
There are some good things about Hell: you can get anything you want to eat--anything! You just order it at a feeding station and it instantly appears. There are other people to hang out with, to be friends with, and even to have romantic encounters with. People hook up and break up, just like on Earth. No matter what injury you sustain, even death, is magically healed the next day. If you die in Hell, no matter how horrifically, you wake up the next day, fresh as a daisy. The problem with Hell, other than the lack of good reading material, is that it is peopled by humans. Humans find a way to ruin everything, including Hell. They form gangs, they attack each other, there's rape, assault, and murder. It is during one of these attacks that Soren experiences the event that makes this place even more hellish for him--he loses the woman he loves. Losing someone in the library doesn't mean in death; it means you actually lose them, as in you can no longer find them. They're still there, but you don't know where. Since it is infinite in size, and you don't have cell phones, it's extremely unlikely you will find each other again. So he knows she's still there, probably looking for him, but there's nothing to be done about it.
There are just so many issues to ponder with this book: religion, God, eternity, existentialism. Soren clings to his hope, both of finding his book, but especially of finding his lost love. Many others he runs across have lost all hope. What a truly terrible existence--to have lost all hope, all reason for living, but to be cursed with eternal life. That truly is Hell.
I urge you to read this book, despite how bleak it sounds. It's really quite engrossing. Highly recommended!!
It starts with a Mormon guy finding out, as everyone else is, that no matter what your religion was, it was the wrong one. Only Zoroastrianism will get you into Heaven, and how many people practice that? Everyone else is condemned to Hell. The good news is that Hell is not how it has been portrayed to many. There are no flames and imps with pitchforks, and it's not permanent. After a period of time, you can win your way out. Our protagonist, Soran Johanssen, will spend his period of penance in a library full of an infinite number of books. Wait! You say. Isn't this supposed to be Hell? Isn't Hell supposed to be bad? Are you sure this isn't Heaven? It's a library! But wait, children--you didn't let me finish. Out of this infinity of books, the percentage of ones that have the alphabet arranged in ways that make sense is extremely small. So, yeah, it's Hell! Imagine being in a library and seeing shelves that stretch as far as the eye can see: rows and rows of books, AND NOT ONE THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY READ! That, my friends, is HELL!
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Soren's job, like everyone else there, is to find the one book that is about him. It doesn't take long for the newly condemned to realize the futility of this enterprise. They have been tasked with the library version of finding the needle in the haystack. They start off bemoaning the fact that this might take up to ten years to accomplish, but later in the book, they have been searching for billions of years. Like I said, the numbers make my head hurt!
There are some good things about Hell: you can get anything you want to eat--anything! You just order it at a feeding station and it instantly appears. There are other people to hang out with, to be friends with, and even to have romantic encounters with. People hook up and break up, just like on Earth. No matter what injury you sustain, even death, is magically healed the next day. If you die in Hell, no matter how horrifically, you wake up the next day, fresh as a daisy. The problem with Hell, other than the lack of good reading material, is that it is peopled by humans. Humans find a way to ruin everything, including Hell. They form gangs, they attack each other, there's rape, assault, and murder. It is during one of these attacks that Soren experiences the event that makes this place even more hellish for him--he loses the woman he loves. Losing someone in the library doesn't mean in death; it means you actually lose them, as in you can no longer find them. They're still there, but you don't know where. Since it is infinite in size, and you don't have cell phones, it's extremely unlikely you will find each other again. So he knows she's still there, probably looking for him, but there's nothing to be done about it.
There are just so many issues to ponder with this book: religion, God, eternity, existentialism. Soren clings to his hope, both of finding his book, but especially of finding his lost love. Many others he runs across have lost all hope. What a truly terrible existence--to have lost all hope, all reason for living, but to be cursed with eternal life. That truly is Hell.
I urge you to read this book, despite how bleak it sounds. It's really quite engrossing. Highly recommended!!
March 19, 2024
A brief, gleefully bleak horror comedy that begins with three pretty funny jokes. Our Mormon protagonist finds himself in a room being administered by an 8 foot demon complete with horns. Demon is trying to figure out which hell he should go to. What? But I shouldn’t be here at all! I’m a good Mormon! I believe in God and Jesus and everything! Demon explains well, kiddo, you picked the wrong religion. The real true religion is Zoroastrianism. Our Mormon is indignant – why was this not made clear? “Bit of bad luck there,” says the demon, in a don’t blame me, I don’t make the rules kind of way.
So anyway, he gets zapped off to one particular Hell and he’s reading the rules on a big helpful board :
Welcome to Hell. This Hell is based upon a short story by Jorge Luis Borges from your world called “The Library of Babel”. Here you will find all the books that can possibly be written.
And after listing nine rules, it concludes
We hope you enjoy your stay here. We have done all we can to make your stay a pleasant and instructive one.
Kind of counterfactual, you may think. But really this Hell is pretty pleasant, you get to eat delicious food all the time, you get to have your 25 year old body which never gets sick, and wonder of wonders you get to meet people and have sex, should you so desire. What could be so bad about Hell, then?
For the answer, you should read this funny and excruciating little book.
Note : In case you were wondering how many books are in this library of hell, there is an answer. The combination of letters and words are confined to those found on a Roman alphabet keyboard, and include all the punctuation too, alas, so the number is quite high, it’s 95 to the power of 1,312,000 which is way way more than the number of electrons in our present universe.
So anyway, he gets zapped off to one particular Hell and he’s reading the rules on a big helpful board :
Welcome to Hell. This Hell is based upon a short story by Jorge Luis Borges from your world called “The Library of Babel”. Here you will find all the books that can possibly be written.
And after listing nine rules, it concludes
We hope you enjoy your stay here. We have done all we can to make your stay a pleasant and instructive one.
Kind of counterfactual, you may think. But really this Hell is pretty pleasant, you get to eat delicious food all the time, you get to have your 25 year old body which never gets sick, and wonder of wonders you get to meet people and have sex, should you so desire. What could be so bad about Hell, then?
For the answer, you should read this funny and excruciating little book.
Note : In case you were wondering how many books are in this library of hell, there is an answer. The combination of letters and words are confined to those found on a Roman alphabet keyboard, and include all the punctuation too, alas, so the number is quite high, it’s 95 to the power of 1,312,000 which is way way more than the number of electrons in our present universe.
July 5, 2022
Man, what a fantastic novella, just the existential dread throughout is depressing yet thought-provoking. This small novella takes the ideas of Borges' Library of Babel and answers what would it be like to suffer through that type of hell? According to this novella, the true religion is Zoroastrianism. Seeing how the author uses this religion and utilising some of Borges's ideas is fascinating. Concerning the prose, I thought it was beautifully written and lyrical at times. However, the prose doesn’t sacrifice clarity. Steven is just very efficient with his use of words. The interweaving of philosophy was fantastic, as he’s a professor of philosophy it only makes sense. I think we will all reach conclusions by the end of this journey, questioning ourselves. I would recommend reading Borges' Library of Babel before reading this as it complements that story immensely (though you don't have to). In conclusion, I would recommend reading it, it's only 100 pages and it's well worth those pages.
October 11, 2016
It was fascinating at first, and as a reader, a version of hell would definitely be all the books possible, yet none that make any sense. However, all the countless numbers overwhelmed me and became tedious to the point that a short stay in hell was trying to finish this book.
July 19, 2021
Çok ama çok beğendim.
Baştan sona düşündüren, sorgulatan, endişelendiren muhteşem bir eser. Bu kadar çok din varken hangisi gerçek? Bir dine göre inandığınızda geri kalan dinlere göre inançsız ve günahkar mı oluyoruz? Cehennem nasıl bir yer olabilir? Cennet ile cehennem arasında gerçekten bir fark var mı?
Sonsuzluk nedir? Sonsuzluk mümkün mü? Sonsuzluğa ihtiyacımız var mı? Milyar kere milyar kere milyarlarca yıl yaşamak iyi bir şey mi?
Bu kitapta bu soruların yanıtını bulacağınızı sanıyorsanız çok yanlıyorsunuz. Kitap size bu soruları ve daha fazlasını sormanızı sağlayacak. Cevapları bulmak ise size kalıyor. Belki yeteri kadar uzun süre ararsanız cevapları bulabilirsiniz. :)
Kitabın uzunluğunu da çok beğendim. Bence yazar kritik bir tercih yaparak hikayeyi uzatmamış ve tam tadında bitirmiş. Kitabı uzatsaydı yine güzel olabilirdi ama mevcut halindeki etkiyi ve vuruculuğu yaratamazdı bence. Cesur bir karar vererek kısa tutmayı tercih ettiği için tebrik etmek gerekir..
Baştan sona düşündüren, sorgulatan, endişelendiren muhteşem bir eser. Bu kadar çok din varken hangisi gerçek? Bir dine göre inandığınızda geri kalan dinlere göre inançsız ve günahkar mı oluyoruz? Cehennem nasıl bir yer olabilir? Cennet ile cehennem arasında gerçekten bir fark var mı?
Sonsuzluk nedir? Sonsuzluk mümkün mü? Sonsuzluğa ihtiyacımız var mı? Milyar kere milyar kere milyarlarca yıl yaşamak iyi bir şey mi?
Bu kitapta bu soruların yanıtını bulacağınızı sanıyorsanız çok yanlıyorsunuz. Kitap size bu soruları ve daha fazlasını sormanızı sağlayacak. Cevapları bulmak ise size kalıyor. Belki yeteri kadar uzun süre ararsanız cevapları bulabilirsiniz. :)
Kitabın uzunluğunu da çok beğendim. Bence yazar kritik bir tercih yaparak hikayeyi uzatmamış ve tam tadında bitirmiş. Kitabı uzatsaydı yine güzel olabilirdi ama mevcut halindeki etkiyi ve vuruculuğu yaratamazdı bence. Cesur bir karar vererek kısa tutmayı tercih ettiği için tebrik etmek gerekir..
July 1, 2024
i honestly forgot about this immediately after reading
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March 17, 2012
When I first read the description of this brief book I was fascinated by the premise but also had some questions. Why would the description emphasize that the protagonist is a "faithful Mormon". The letter from Strange Violin Editions that came with this advance copy only piqued my curiosity with its stated mission being to release writings by "Mormons, former Mormons, and people interested in Mormonism who seek thought-provoking, intelligently written, Mormonism-related books that strive to attain a high level of literary quality." I wondered if this book was possibly a religious tract of some sort beyond the somewhat bleak and horrific plot description.
It is not. While it has strong philosophical tones, it is quite existential and offers more questions than answers. And they are questions that are relevant to anyone regardless of their religious or philosophical background. The Hell of Peck's novella is based on a short story by Jorge Luis Borges about a library containing an allegedly infinite amount of books. The new arrivals are informed that the true religion is Zoroastrianism. "Zoor-what-ism?" acclaims one shocked Christian. The main character is sentenced to a vast library with the goal to seek out the book that contains the story of his life.
But eventually even this seemingly final exile into hell is questioned. Peck in his accessible and delightful style seems to have written a story about uncertainty and our attempts to make that uncertainty have meaning. Despite the heavy sounding plot, A Short Stay in Hell is an easy and engrossing read but it also full of ideas that stick with you long after the last page. At the beginning of our protagonist's trip into hell, he is given a list of rules. The last rule in not commented on much in the book but it stayed with me...
It appears that Peck's hell isn't all that different from life.
Four and a half stars.
It is not. While it has strong philosophical tones, it is quite existential and offers more questions than answers. And they are questions that are relevant to anyone regardless of their religious or philosophical background. The Hell of Peck's novella is based on a short story by Jorge Luis Borges about a library containing an allegedly infinite amount of books. The new arrivals are informed that the true religion is Zoroastrianism. "Zoor-what-ism?" acclaims one shocked Christian. The main character is sentenced to a vast library with the goal to seek out the book that contains the story of his life.
But eventually even this seemingly final exile into hell is questioned. Peck in his accessible and delightful style seems to have written a story about uncertainty and our attempts to make that uncertainty have meaning. Despite the heavy sounding plot, A Short Stay in Hell is an easy and engrossing read but it also full of ideas that stick with you long after the last page. At the beginning of our protagonist's trip into hell, he is given a list of rules. The last rule in not commented on much in the book but it stayed with me...
Lastly, you are here to learn something.Don't try to figure what it is. That can be frustrating and unproductive.
It appears that Peck's hell isn't all that different from life.
Four and a half stars.
March 6, 2024
idk how I feel about it as of right now
November 13, 2023
i really hate when authors lampshade about having too many or only white characters in their books, and this was the most egregious example of that that i have read. especially since there is no reason for race to be mentioned at all in a story like this. the author is very blunt about Every Character A White American being a metaphor for the mundanity of hell, i really think its just a shortcut for his lack of imagination. being white isn't a "default race" and positing so is lazy writing; if someone wants to really erase all difference between a given fictional population why not make them actually raceless and also genderless too?
the story itself is unartfully written and nothing new on this subject is really proposed. the protagonist is Just Some Guy who meets some people sometimes, searches for things sometimes, and gives up after a while. the original short story this is inspired by is better worth the reading time.
the story itself is unartfully written and nothing new on this subject is really proposed. the protagonist is Just Some Guy who meets some people sometimes, searches for things sometimes, and gives up after a while. the original short story this is inspired by is better worth the reading time.
September 3, 2012
This is a rather disturbing, thought-provoking novella. Read it in a single sitting. One of the most horrific hells I've ever pondered. I'm sure it will be in my brain until the day I die. Some parts reminded me of Peter Beagle's A Fine and Private Place, others of Orson Scott Card's short story "A Thousand Deaths." A good read, but don't expect a happy ending. It's about hell after all.
Available very inexpensively as a Kindle book.
Update: It's been nearly a year since I read this and I still find myself thinking about it. I originally gave this three stars because I didn't like the darkness, the subject, or the main character, but I'm going to have to raise my rating to five based on pure mind-bending power.
Available very inexpensively as a Kindle book.
Update: It's been nearly a year since I read this and I still find myself thinking about it. I originally gave this three stars because I didn't like the darkness, the subject, or the main character, but I'm going to have to raise my rating to five based on pure mind-bending power.
April 27, 2024
Reading this book was like a short stay in hell
August 30, 2022
Although the yellow-eyed Zoroastrian demon who sends the dead off to Hell at the beginning of this book never says so directly, there are enough hints as to the kind of Hell you get: for each of us, something appropriate to our interests or obsessions while alive. So for Soren Johansson, who always read a lot and loved books, it’s a vast library.
And I do mean vast because, though finite in size, the numbers involved here are so brain-frying this library might as well be infinitely big. This is in fact a novella-length reworking of Jorge Luis Borges’s short story The Library of Babel, and a Borges Library doesn’t just contain all the books ever written, it contains all possible books. Each volume is 410 pages long, forty lines per page, eighty characters per line and together they cover every possible combination of text, from “AAAA…” (i.e. 410 pages of nothing but capital As) to something like “////…” They’re arranged randomly on the shelves, so you’ve no idea where anything is; the shelves in stacks, the stacks on successive floors…endless floors… In this near-infinity it is Soren’s task (his punishment for not being a Zoroastrian I think, because he seems to have led a pretty blameless life otherwise) to search the stacks for the single volume which describes that life—finding it is what will release him from this hell.
Steven L Peck’s task of course is to somehow convince us (and by “us” I mean Goodreaders everywhere who likewise read shed-loads of books, who think about books and love books the way we all do here) that this library could be a hell rather than a heaven. He does it though, in spades—the number of possible books is jaw-dropping. Early on for example: “I found this book around the 23⁴³⁹th day of my stay in Hell…” Even a professional mathematician would have to think long and hard about how to put into words a span of time such as this (phrases like “trillions of universes passing, one after another” don’t even make a dent in it). Likewise the scale of the building needed to house this collection—you could describe it in millimetres, or in billions of light-years, because in effect it makes no difference whatsoever. This story is about eternity and the true implications of phrases such as “eternal damnation”—or the “eternal life” of many another fantasy, or “eternal love”.
For Soren, no other escape is possible: he can’t kill himself, being already dead, and can’t even go mad—he’s kept horribly sane throughout. And yet, through it all there does remain the possibility of, somehow, finding that book of his life and being freed…perhaps with a more systematic search from the bottom floor up… So this is also about the extraordinary human capacity for hope, a hope that survives when all else has been lost, a hope that refuses to die—even in Hell.
[For anyone curious, the total number of possible books—all just 410 pages long, forty lines a page, eighty characters a line and using, say, about ninety-five keyboard-characters—is 95¹³¹²⁰⁰⁰. For comparison, the number of electrons in the entire visible universe is a “mere” 1.5⁸⁰. And the library itself? Roughly 7.16¹²⁹⁷³⁶⁹ light-years.]
And I do mean vast because, though finite in size, the numbers involved here are so brain-frying this library might as well be infinitely big. This is in fact a novella-length reworking of Jorge Luis Borges’s short story The Library of Babel, and a Borges Library doesn’t just contain all the books ever written, it contains all possible books. Each volume is 410 pages long, forty lines per page, eighty characters per line and together they cover every possible combination of text, from “AAAA…” (i.e. 410 pages of nothing but capital As) to something like “////…” They’re arranged randomly on the shelves, so you’ve no idea where anything is; the shelves in stacks, the stacks on successive floors…endless floors… In this near-infinity it is Soren’s task (his punishment for not being a Zoroastrian I think, because he seems to have led a pretty blameless life otherwise) to search the stacks for the single volume which describes that life—finding it is what will release him from this hell.
Steven L Peck’s task of course is to somehow convince us (and by “us” I mean Goodreaders everywhere who likewise read shed-loads of books, who think about books and love books the way we all do here) that this library could be a hell rather than a heaven. He does it though, in spades—the number of possible books is jaw-dropping. Early on for example: “I found this book around the 23⁴³⁹th day of my stay in Hell…” Even a professional mathematician would have to think long and hard about how to put into words a span of time such as this (phrases like “trillions of universes passing, one after another” don’t even make a dent in it). Likewise the scale of the building needed to house this collection—you could describe it in millimetres, or in billions of light-years, because in effect it makes no difference whatsoever. This story is about eternity and the true implications of phrases such as “eternal damnation”—or the “eternal life” of many another fantasy, or “eternal love”.
For Soren, no other escape is possible: he can’t kill himself, being already dead, and can’t even go mad—he’s kept horribly sane throughout. And yet, through it all there does remain the possibility of, somehow, finding that book of his life and being freed…perhaps with a more systematic search from the bottom floor up… So this is also about the extraordinary human capacity for hope, a hope that survives when all else has been lost, a hope that refuses to die—even in Hell.
[For anyone curious, the total number of possible books—all just 410 pages long, forty lines a page, eighty characters a line and using, say, about ninety-five keyboard-characters—is 95¹³¹²⁰⁰⁰. For comparison, the number of electrons in the entire visible universe is a “mere” 1.5⁸⁰. And the library itself? Roughly 7.16¹²⁹⁷³⁶⁹ light-years.]
February 2, 2016
So, you die and wind up in hell, greeted by a demon who says "Yeah, that religion you chose? Sorry, wrong one!"
This was a very odd little short novel, about a Mormon who dies and finds out that in fact, there is one true religion, and it isn't Mormonism. But don't worry - this is neither an anti-Mormon nor an evangelical work. The fact that the main character is a Mormon is just coincidence - he is joined in hell by many other people who are equally surprised at having checked the wrong box.
(What is the "one true religion," according to this book? It probably won't be your first or second or third guess... you'll just have to read it.)
The hell he is sent to (it's implied that there are multiple hells) is an infinite library, in which the residents are told all they have to do is find the one book on its shelves that tells their entire life story, complete and without a single typo or error. The catch is that every possible book of a given length, given the 95 standard characters on a Latin-character typewriter, exists in this library.
This is, in fact, literally Jorge Luis Borges' Library of Babel.
So, technically it's not infinite. But someone calculates the actual number of books that must exist in the library. If you know anything about exponentiation, you already have an inkling of how big the number is. For all practical purposes, the library is infinite and the residents of hell are stuck there for eternity.
The main character spends some time (a lot of time) exploring, meeting other people, figuring out the metaphysical rules that govern this place, and searching for that one book in umpty-gazillion-googleplex-to-the-numptifinity-power that will get him out.
This wasn't as philosophical as you might expect - there are not really any theological explorations on the part of the author or the characters. It's more of a modern tribute to Jorge Luis Borges, with some parts that reminded me a bit of Piers Anthony or Jack Chalker - not their penchant for skeeviness, but the way they create odd alternate worlds with different metaphysical rules and then toss an ordinary person into them to figure their way around.
This was a very odd little short novel, about a Mormon who dies and finds out that in fact, there is one true religion, and it isn't Mormonism. But don't worry - this is neither an anti-Mormon nor an evangelical work. The fact that the main character is a Mormon is just coincidence - he is joined in hell by many other people who are equally surprised at having checked the wrong box.
(What is the "one true religion," according to this book? It probably won't be your first or second or third guess... you'll just have to read it.)
The hell he is sent to (it's implied that there are multiple hells) is an infinite library, in which the residents are told all they have to do is find the one book on its shelves that tells their entire life story, complete and without a single typo or error. The catch is that every possible book of a given length, given the 95 standard characters on a Latin-character typewriter, exists in this library.
This is, in fact, literally Jorge Luis Borges' Library of Babel.
So, technically it's not infinite. But someone calculates the actual number of books that must exist in the library. If you know anything about exponentiation, you already have an inkling of how big the number is. For all practical purposes, the library is infinite and the residents of hell are stuck there for eternity.
The main character spends some time (a lot of time) exploring, meeting other people, figuring out the metaphysical rules that govern this place, and searching for that one book in umpty-gazillion-googleplex-to-the-numptifinity-power that will get him out.
This wasn't as philosophical as you might expect - there are not really any theological explorations on the part of the author or the characters. It's more of a modern tribute to Jorge Luis Borges, with some parts that reminded me a bit of Piers Anthony or Jack Chalker - not their penchant for skeeviness, but the way they create odd alternate worlds with different metaphysical rules and then toss an ordinary person into them to figure their way around.
May 29, 2016
I really liked the ideas that this book had, but I wasn't satisfied with where it took any of them. I would have liked it better if it took one or two of the ideas and ran with it. Instead, many things felt shallow and unresolved.
Despite its flaws, it was an interesting and short read.
Despite its flaws, it was an interesting and short read.
January 11, 2024
Wow! I read this horror novella in one sitting and my mind is officially blown.
I will ponder on this masterpiece and give a full review on my channel. Sorry, this book is going to keep me up tonight!
I will ponder on this masterpiece and give a full review on my channel. Sorry, this book is going to keep me up tonight!
June 28, 2022
I'm clearly in the minority here with my low rating but I got nothing from this story. Not a curiosity for the subject matter. Not a wondering about human existence. Nothing. This novella plays out human behavior in hell exactly like humans live when in their "earthly bodies". People find ways to make friends, make institutions, make people into Prophets, creating chaos and violence. And I'm not even going into the fact that this description of hell only contained white American people. I have thoughts but this is not the place for that conversation. I found this book on a list of "most disturbing books" and honestly it read like normal mundane life. I have seen similar depair, madness, and violence depicted in this hell, reported in the 5 O'Clock News. The writing as fine, the use over complicated words to describe small moments and details was annoying.
February 9, 2022
4,5
Being the voracious, ever hungry reader that I am, even when reading strong, compelling books I'm always happy to turn the last page so I can clench my endless curiosity towards the next books on my pile.
It's like having a literary tapeworm in my head. You know the feeling.
'A short stay in hell' was the first book in ages that I found too short. I was craving for more. I did't want to start a new book, instead I desired to be stuck a lot longer in Pecks universe. Which is -when you accept my recommendation and actually read this little gem- a highly ironic thing to say.
Borges would've been very pleased by this adaptation/extention of this short story: The library of Babel.
Being the voracious, ever hungry reader that I am, even when reading strong, compelling books I'm always happy to turn the last page so I can clench my endless curiosity towards the next books on my pile.
It's like having a literary tapeworm in my head. You know the feeling.
'A short stay in hell' was the first book in ages that I found too short. I was craving for more. I did't want to start a new book, instead I desired to be stuck a lot longer in Pecks universe. Which is -when you accept my recommendation and actually read this little gem- a highly ironic thing to say.
Borges would've been very pleased by this adaptation/extention of this short story: The library of Babel.
September 13, 2012
Imagine, you have just died. I know, kinda crappy, right? But! At least all your earthly suffering is over. Whatever caused your death is no longer troubling you and you are restored to the prime of your youth and deposited into a vast, almost infinite library filled with every book that could ever be written and where you do not age, you have perfect memory and are able to recall every word you have ever read and every event that has ever happened to you, your every injury and even death are healed overnight, your every culinary desire is met by an automated kiosk and you are surrounded by people who are pretty similar to you in background. You would think that you are in heaven, wouldn't you? Or at least a book geek's version of it. Yet, you'd be entirely and completely wrong. Because you are actually in hell. Or one version of it based on a short story by Borges The Library of Babel.
Until I read the book, just the concept of a library as hell was complete anathema to my mind. The story tells you straight up, however, that this is hell, as you are greeted by a polite but very red demon against the backdrop of bodies burning endlessly in tar and lava and told that you are here because the one true faith is Zoroastrianism, so bad luck for you unless you worship the Lord of Light and Wisdom Ahura Mazda. Here he is by the way:
(I seriously need to go read up on this stuff as this is the second book made of awesome which I have read in the last year which is based, at least in part, on Zoroastrian mythology).
The devil, of course, is in the detail and comes down to how you define a "book". Because for me, you see, in order to be a "book" something needs to not just be shaped as a book (in fact, with the advent of e-books, it doesn't even need to be shaped as a book at all) but also have content capable of conveying meaning (even if it is meaning which I am not capable of understanding). Whereas in the Zoroastrian hell library, a "book" is essentially a paper book of a set size, 410 pages long and with a set number of lines per page and letters per line consisting of about 95 characters on the standard English keyboard arranged in all possible variations which gives us 95 to the power of 1,312,000 possible books, i.e. quite a bit more than there are electrons in the universe and a library that's about 7,16 to the power of 1,297,369 light years wide and deep but the vast majority of which are just a random arrangement of letters and symbols which carries no meaning whatsoever.
Your task in this hell is to find your earthly life story without errors. "If your story is accepted, you will be admitted into a glorious heaven filled with wonders and joys beyond your imagination." Oh, and "you are here to lean something. Don't try to figure out what it is. This can be frustrating and unproductive".
This book was mind-blowing. It is a book about philosophy and religion and the meaning of life – all things that normally make me cringe and move slowly away but here it was all done in such a gentle non-patronising non-head-bashing way, it was fascinating. My only complaint is that it was not long enough. At the start, it is described as a book found by the narrator in the library. So where, I ask you, are the other 302 pages then? Yet, this is a minor complaint. For all its brevity, there is so much packed into the pages of this book. Love, loss, violence, horror, insanity, cattle mentality, sorrow, hope, hopelessness, infinity are just a few of the themes. I'm sure I will be picking this up again sooner rather than later.
Until I read the book, just the concept of a library as hell was complete anathema to my mind. The story tells you straight up, however, that this is hell, as you are greeted by a polite but very red demon against the backdrop of bodies burning endlessly in tar and lava and told that you are here because the one true faith is Zoroastrianism, so bad luck for you unless you worship the Lord of Light and Wisdom Ahura Mazda. Here he is by the way:
(I seriously need to go read up on this stuff as this is the second book made of awesome which I have read in the last year which is based, at least in part, on Zoroastrian mythology).
The devil, of course, is in the detail and comes down to how you define a "book". Because for me, you see, in order to be a "book" something needs to not just be shaped as a book (in fact, with the advent of e-books, it doesn't even need to be shaped as a book at all) but also have content capable of conveying meaning (even if it is meaning which I am not capable of understanding). Whereas in the Zoroastrian hell library, a "book" is essentially a paper book of a set size, 410 pages long and with a set number of lines per page and letters per line consisting of about 95 characters on the standard English keyboard arranged in all possible variations which gives us 95 to the power of 1,312,000 possible books, i.e. quite a bit more than there are electrons in the universe and a library that's about 7,16 to the power of 1,297,369 light years wide and deep but the vast majority of which are just a random arrangement of letters and symbols which carries no meaning whatsoever.
Your task in this hell is to find your earthly life story without errors. "If your story is accepted, you will be admitted into a glorious heaven filled with wonders and joys beyond your imagination." Oh, and "you are here to lean something. Don't try to figure out what it is. This can be frustrating and unproductive".
This book was mind-blowing. It is a book about philosophy and religion and the meaning of life – all things that normally make me cringe and move slowly away but here it was all done in such a gentle non-patronising non-head-bashing way, it was fascinating. My only complaint is that it was not long enough. At the start, it is described as a book found by the narrator in the library. So where, I ask you, are the other 302 pages then? Yet, this is a minor complaint. For all its brevity, there is so much packed into the pages of this book. Love, loss, violence, horror, insanity, cattle mentality, sorrow, hope, hopelessness, infinity are just a few of the themes. I'm sure I will be picking this up again sooner rather than later.
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