A Short Stay in Hell
Product ID: 529847649
As a faithful Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he'll be reunited with his loved ones 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. Review: Mesmerizing - A whole different view and perspective, gives hope in hell....so keep on trying forever ...life on earth is heaven maybe Review: A satire - All of your living life, you hope to go to Heaven once dead and try not to sin by sacrificing whatever is in your capacity with the faith that God will reward you. Just that, God ‘rewarded’ the dead souls in the book by sending them to ‘Hell’ which honestly doesn’t sound that bad. This hell is quite comfortable and as such, if you didn’t have any particular attachment on Earth, you might love it here. This Hell ensures that you are forever young,every morning is a fresh start with full recovery, you can eat whatever you want, sleep comfortably. Mostly great!! Except that in order to get out of ‘Hell’, you need to find a book amongst a gazillion of books which contains the story of YOUR life. Catch: all books look similar and it’s a lot of gibberish and real content in one book could at max be a phrase or a sentence or a paragraph . The possibilities to find that one book (or multiple volumes of it) to contain everything of your life are bleak. In the pursuit of those books, our protagonist and others stuck in ‘Hell’ with him, find innovative ways to occupy themselves. Basically all Earthly things with the backdrop of Hell. And yet, what happens when a bunch of humans are left together at one place? A CULT even in ‘Hell’!! To justify what fellow humans deserve by ordering a full blown torture by calling it God’s great work.:) The defining point of this hell is its unrelenting uniformity, it’s lack of variation from type which often drives the protagonist and his bunch to go on pursuits to find people with different origins, different language books etc. All white and English supremacy gets even the best of them in ‘Hell’. “Homogeneity everywhere, endlessly stretching into an eternity of monotony.” Love and human connection has been shown to be that thing that helps preserve sanity when one is desperately searching for the book on their life. At one point, the protagonist observes, “In a place where there is no real death, I had seen pain, anger, hatred, viciousness, blazing insane mali-ceous rage, boredom often, frustration commonly, love, joy, contentment, excitement, sorrow over lost love, and a host of other emotions…” This book reads like a satire. 102 pages long. And a decent interesting read. 3/5 from me
| Best Sellers Rank | #120,783 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #6,305 in Contemporary Fiction (Books) #8,216 in Reference (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 12,136 Reviews |
K**R
Mesmerizing
A whole different view and perspective, gives hope in hell....so keep on trying forever ...life on earth is heaven maybe
M**A
A satire
All of your living life, you hope to go to Heaven once dead and try not to sin by sacrificing whatever is in your capacity with the faith that God will reward you. Just that, God ‘rewarded’ the dead souls in the book by sending them to ‘Hell’ which honestly doesn’t sound that bad. This hell is quite comfortable and as such, if you didn’t have any particular attachment on Earth, you might love it here. This Hell ensures that you are forever young,every morning is a fresh start with full recovery, you can eat whatever you want, sleep comfortably. Mostly great!! Except that in order to get out of ‘Hell’, you need to find a book amongst a gazillion of books which contains the story of YOUR life. Catch: all books look similar and it’s a lot of gibberish and real content in one book could at max be a phrase or a sentence or a paragraph . The possibilities to find that one book (or multiple volumes of it) to contain everything of your life are bleak. In the pursuit of those books, our protagonist and others stuck in ‘Hell’ with him, find innovative ways to occupy themselves. Basically all Earthly things with the backdrop of Hell. And yet, what happens when a bunch of humans are left together at one place? A CULT even in ‘Hell’!! To justify what fellow humans deserve by ordering a full blown torture by calling it God’s great work.:) The defining point of this hell is its unrelenting uniformity, it’s lack of variation from type which often drives the protagonist and his bunch to go on pursuits to find people with different origins, different language books etc. All white and English supremacy gets even the best of them in ‘Hell’. “Homogeneity everywhere, endlessly stretching into an eternity of monotony.” Love and human connection has been shown to be that thing that helps preserve sanity when one is desperately searching for the book on their life. At one point, the protagonist observes, “In a place where there is no real death, I had seen pain, anger, hatred, viciousness, blazing insane mali-ceous rage, boredom often, frustration commonly, love, joy, contentment, excitement, sorrow over lost love, and a host of other emotions…” This book reads like a satire. 102 pages long. And a decent interesting read. 3/5 from me
F**D
Not what I expected
I was very excited to read this book but found it lacking. Felt very pretentious and frustrating. Pointless with no clarity or closure, probably the point of the book as it's about being in hell.
A**R
Good read
Very interesting take on purgatory
S**S
Brilliant concept
Fascinating read. I’m not a big book reader but I couldn’t put it down. I felt it could’ve been more developed but otherwise a very memorable read
D**E
Definitely worth a read!
Very good read. My mom also read it the same day. I recommend you read this!
A**A
A short and dreadful read
This book is truly short and sweet - if the sweet you are looking for is exhistential dread and a thought provoking read. It really lingers with you even after it’s finished, I truly recommend this - all of us have wondered at some point what happens in the afterlife, so being touched by this story is inevitable.
Trustpilot
3 weeks ago
5 days ago