Review:
"I'll never stop believing it: Robert Olen Butler is the best living American writer, period." -- Jeff Guinn "The number of novels and short-story collections about the Vietnam War is now approaching five hundred. Were I to recommend a single volume that poignantly shows the magnitude and the humanity of the tragedy, it would be this one." -- John Clark Pratt "The book has attracted such acclaim not simply because it is beautifully and powerfully written, but because it convincingly pulls off an immense imaginative risk.... Butler has not entered the significant and ever-growing canon of Vietnam-related fiction (he has long been a member)--he has changed its composition forever." -- Claire Messud "No writer in America today can be said to surpass Butler in the eating-his-cake-and-having-it-too category: He's literary and entertaining, serious and funny. Within his clear and fluent narratives, there usually nestles complexity, if you care to look for it." -- Chauncey Mabe "Butler has been honing his profound empathy and wild imagination in electrifying collections of short fiction. He now unchains himself in this furiously detailed, harrowing, and gruesomely funny satire, taking on everything from genocide to advertising, journalistic ethics to marital bickering. The result is a scorching and cathartic novel of delusion, pain, crimes great and small, just deserts, and the capacity for change."--Booklist "Prolific Pulitzer-winner Butler features a colorful cast of underworld dwellers in his latest novel, and, as in Severance and Intercourse, captures stream-of consciousness in delicious, unleashed rhythm."--Publisher's Weekly "The fresh hell described by Robert Olen Butler's new novel is crammed with random celebrities. It is plagued by modern problems like four-hour erections and crashing hard drives. Patrolled by Satan's minions (among them, two of the Bee Gees) dressed in powder-blue jumpsuits, it's filled with bookstores that optimistically open with new owners at every sunrise -- only to go out of business by the end of each day. If the books they can't sell in hell are maddeningly uneven, ever bouncing between passable wit and sophomoric giggles. Mr. Butler's slapdash "Hell" deserves shelf space there." --Janet Maslin, New York Times "Robert Olen Butler's Hell is the perfect summer read . . . the prose flows in a seemingly effortless stream . . . [leading] to complex and exquisitely written set pieces of inspired insight into the sinful and broken nature of humanity."--News and Observer "In Hell, Robert Olen Butler has given us a rare treat --a novel that explores the darker side of human nature while making you laugh so hard iced tea almost comes out your nose . . . McCord's search for the elusive back door culminates in a fascinating trip to heaven and some interesting conclusions about the nature of being human. It's a strange trip . . . if you like contemporary authors such as David Maine and Glen
About the Author:
Robert Olen Butler teaches creative writing at Florida State University.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.