---

Sometimes you read a book and then it stays with you for months on end. I like to compare this fermentation. You do not write the review immediately; you let the work “ferment” in your mind for a while. But as this book sat in my mind, I increasingly felt uncomfortable, but in the best possible of ways.

And is this not the mark of great literature?

For one, this book made me ask uncomfortable questions while it made me feel strange, odd, discomforted. But second, it stayed with me, it remained in my mind. Some books are fleeting, they remain for a matter of seconds, but this book has now remained a couple of months in my book and every time I think about it, it is like a rekindled fire, an underground fire that burns the roots and which is seeking the smallest of kindle to relight.

This will be a strange review, one that tries to stay with the book, but in the process of the review, allow me to go off on my tangents. But for the most part, this review will only praise this book, for it is one of the best novels (novellas) that I have read in a while, and I would put this book on the list of books everyone should at least once read. It was that good.

Let us move into the review (and please beware, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. If you want to read the book for yourself, do not continue if you have not read the book. AGAIN, SPOILERS AHEAD.)

---

From the start, we are thrown into a world that goes beyond our own. Unless you were part of a small-ish religious group, you will be thrown into a strange world, the hell of another religious group. You might, as one of the characters, lose your mind because you were sure you were part of the true religion, and it is at this early stage that you begin to question your own religious or non-religious commitments. But then one is thrown into the main part of the story: the actual hell for the character. And while it is not made completely evident, we can imagine that what we are reading is one of the books the author found on his journey. This brings in a different element, but if you did not read it as such, it does not really affect it.

Either way, hell is understood as a near-infinite library based on the work of Jorge Luis Borges, the library of babel. To escape this hell, you need to find your book, your life story, in the almost endless rows of books. Sounds easy? Until you realise just how big almost infinity is.

And this is what the author wanted to portray: the absurdity of large numbers. We can easily imagine large numbers, and we can easily think about “infinity” but when the two converge something strange happens: incredibly large numbers become infinite. Or: from the perspective of a finite being in a “short” amount of time, incredibly large numbers become infinite.

The title of the book, A short stay in Hell illustrates this absurdity: a life of 100 years is almost negligible in terms of a 100 million years. If we had near infinite time, which is not infinite time, we would not recognise the difference. Things dear to use would lose their significance. It is a common thought experiment in philosophy classes. If you had all the time in the world, you would literally stagnate, because “tomorrow is another day”. So, you would continually put out things because being in time lost all of its significance.

Yet the character in the book tries to live, tries to find his book, and on the way the strangest of things happen. And this might be my only critique of the book: events at times feels strange and unjustified. There is too much focus on sexual aspects, which the author could have dealt with more nuance. But for the most part, the book was exceptionally well written and thought out.

I wonder though, if the novella was turned into a full book, maybe a 1000 pager, if the story would still have its bite. So many people love the book, including me, but I felt like I wanted more, I wanted to sit with this book for a month. But one might also make the argument that because of its brevity it is a work of exceptional fiction. Not everything needs 1000 pages. But still, it felt too quick…

Either way, I hope that you will pick up this book, for it is one of those few books that not only leave you changed, but continually changes you…

Happy reading.

All of the musings and writings are my own, albeit inspired by this book. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.