Reading Wednesday
Sep. 25th, 2019 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabby Just finished: Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage. I picked this up because a) I liked Cockroach a lot, and b) I really, really liked the title. It did not disappoint. It's about an undertaker in 1970s Lebanon during the Civil War who, after his father's death, inherits his legacy: arranging cremations for people who can't be buried because of their religious views, sexuality, or politics.
This is a book where pretty much everyone you meet dies and yet I found it weirdly uplifting; it's a story about humanity at its best in the midst of humanity at its worse. The protagonist is highly relatable; he just wants to read the Greek classics, hang out with dogs, and do his job, but he has the misfortune of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. The writing is lyrical and has some of the existentialist influence of Cockroach but far more on the secular humanist side than the absurdity in the face of despair side.
If you're going to read it, there are some trigger warnings so let me know if you want to know.
Currently reading: Still reading Guardian. Still enjoying it.
Up next: Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline omg so excited.
This is a book where pretty much everyone you meet dies and yet I found it weirdly uplifting; it's a story about humanity at its best in the midst of humanity at its worse. The protagonist is highly relatable; he just wants to read the Greek classics, hang out with dogs, and do his job, but he has the misfortune of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. The writing is lyrical and has some of the existentialist influence of Cockroach but far more on the secular humanist side than the absurdity in the face of despair side.
If you're going to read it, there are some trigger warnings so let me know if you want to know.
Currently reading: Still reading Guardian. Still enjoying it.
Up next: Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline omg so excited.
