What do readers think of Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage? Write your own review.

Life in the midst of war is harsh and everything but war becomes irrelevant to daily life. This is the topic of Beirut Hellfire Society. The utter profanity of war, the desperation of the occupants of a city at war and the irrelevance of even the traditions of death are reflected in the activities of the characters in this book. War allows no joy, no warmth and eventually no humanity. Absence of all but war creates a stark commentary on the realities of war, unadorned by heroism, compassion or triumph in any aspect of life. Our society glorifies war, especially as part of the past, this book does not. Human desperation and efforts to confront daily violence and an unknown future are bravely attacked by the main character. The darkness in this book means it will appeal to a select group of sophisticated readers, not every reader. The book reminds me of a line from a Ferlinghetti poem - "and then came the smiling mortician."

This was such a strange book - the 1st I've ever read by Rawi Hage. Reading reviews of his others makes me think all of his books are of the same sort of strangeness. You will probably LOVE them or HATE them...(I'm closer to the hate side.)
The setting was placed in Beirut during the civil war. The main character was Pavlov who was the son of an undertaker killed in a bombing raid. There wasn't much of a plot - basically each chapter was the story of a different person or, in some cases, two people, in one case a dog, who Pavlov knew. There was some interconnection between the people but not enough to enhance or describe much character development.
Pavlov was a reader of the Greek classics and somewhat of a philosophical person so much of the book was his musings on different topics - quite often death and all the things related to death.
The only reason I read the entire book was because every now and then there was a gem of a phrase, metaphor, description or thought, especially in the beginning that, in my opinion, made it worthwhile.

This was a difficult book to read. The writing is beautiful with amazing descriptions of war and life in a war torn city. However, I could not connect to any of the characters in the story. They were described well, but each person in the story seemed to hold others at bay, guarded and walled off, even to the reader.

The story showed how war is sometimes secondary to the violence in families and society as a whole. War and violence loom over everyone and everything and the only option is to endure as long as possible.

Beautifully written but sad, depressing, nihilistic. I guess all of that is to be expected in a war-torn city at a time when anyone's life could be ended at any moment. I am glad I read it but I did not enjoy it.

I wanted to like this book...guess I just wasn't ready for the author's loquacious/ outrageous style and his very dark humour. I found the subject matter interesting enough but could not hook into the story....

Admittedly, I was unfamiliar with Rawi Hage before seeing this ARC listed on BookBrowse. What appealed to me was the title. I anticipated learning more about Beirut's Civil War. And even after reading the summary provided, I still assumed the book would provide me with more history and details of this 15 year conflict. Unfortunately, not much. I found myself putting the book down often to search on line for what I had truly hoped to gain from reading Beirut Hellfire Society.

Was there a plot? I'm not sure. Pavlov, the son brought into the Hellfire Society after his father's death, spends most of his time NOT bathing, smoking, talking to a dead dog, and watching the funeral processions of those killed during the war. A strange cast of characters parades in and out of his home, but why? Well, to smoke, drink, and have sex, of course. I thought as a member of the Hellfire Society, Pavlov might have a little more work to do.

Between time spent on the internet actually reading about the Civil War, I found myself rereading chapters of the book trying to understand what I was missing. I certainly got the tragedy part, but missed the comedy altogether. Perhaps I just don't understand dark humor. Was I supposed to laugh? Because I didn't-not once.

I appreciated some of Hage's profound statements on death and the destruction caused by war, but, unfortunately, that was about it.

This tale presents the raw outrage, fear, misery, and indelible sadness of a country at war. The writing is excellent. Unfortunately, it is so filled with sex and depravity that I can not recommend this book. After having to force myself to read past the first few chapters, the book did offer some moments of humor (of the black variety) and the final pages did offer some version of hope after the devastation of hopelessness that war engenders. The feelings of the outcast (religion, societal, employment, mental illness, etc) are clearly shown. I had hoped for a better read.

I don't like being negative, but I have no choice if I am honest. The first few pages intrigued me--Lebanon, war-time, a free-thinker. Although from time to time an interesting character appears, the book is a series of vignettes tied together by the central character, Pavlov, who is not very interesting himself--he stands on his balcony, smokes, observes. He is cool, detached. His thoughts about those he observes are surface thoughts. The people who appear in the vignettes come and go, no depth of development. This is not a book to enjoy; nor is the basic premise--fire to fire is better than dust to dust--much of a philosophy.