Hell

by Robert Olen Butler

Book Overview

Hatcher McCord is an evening news presenter who has found himself in Hell and is struggling to explain his bad fortune. He's not the only one to suffer this fate--in fact, he's surrounded by an outrageous cast of characters, including Humphrey Bogart, William Shakespeare, and almost all of the popes and most of the U.S. presidents. The question may be not who is in Hell but who isn't. McCord is living with Anne Boleyn in the afterlife but their happiness...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802119018
• ISBN13: 9780802119018
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Good take on a tough theme

For those of us who have ever wondered what hell is like (or will be like), this book humorously describes best what might lie ahead. The book is well written and easy to read, and has numerous references to historical figures with entertaining insight into their thoughts. As anyone would try to do who found themselves in hell, Hatcher McCord, a popular news anchorman in life, tries to find his way to heaven out of hell. Using his "nose for news" he wends his way through the complicated streets of hell, meeting assorted characters from his past life and from history. I found this book entertaining for it was funny, scary, insightful, and philosophical. Butler's take on our human condition is accurate and I found this book (ironically) uplifting. If you wish to read fiction apart from the standard story line and one that is especially well written, then this book is for you.

The Witty Offspring of C.S. Lewis and Dante

Before reading Butler's novel, my image of hell was based on Dante's fetid circles and Lewis' efficient bureaucracy. Both of these elements appear in Hell, along with generous doses of humor and satire. I can't imagine a more stimulating beach read as your broil under the summer sun.

Naysayers be damned

HELL is undoubtedly one of the best novels I've read all year. Compulsively readable, tremendously evocative and atmospheric, deeply creepy and laugh-out-loud funny at once, it offers the most disturbing characterization of The Devil I know of in modern lit. Despite understandable assumptions it has very little to do with Dante (outside of a few great jokes) and is really a faithful, literal -- radically literal, if there is such a thing, and if there wasn't, there is now -- gloss on Sartre's NO EXIT. Not for nothing is the sole question asked of everyone in the land of the dead not a Satanic inversion or perversion of, but the very same, question that we, the living, ask of ourselves: why are we here? Cross NO EXIT with THE COLBERT REPORT and Peter Jackson's DEAD-ALIVE and you've got HELL. Highly recommended. PS: If you enjoy HELL I recommend you check out a DVD titled THE BOTHERSOME MAN. 'Nuff said.

A Pleasant Descent Into Hell

I loved this book. Butler has written a modern classic. His vision of Hell is unique and very personal. Everyone is there, in one way or another, much like the Riverworld series by Phillip Jose Farmer. The main character, Hatcher, is believable, likable, and complex. The story itself is intriguing. The Hell of Butler's vision is very personal for each person there. However, in addition to very personal tortures for everyone, there are generic tortures for the masses, such as the sulfur rain, lake of fire, and so on. Some of the specific tortures are indeed clever, funny, evil, and did I mention funny. Of course, what would Hell be without Satan. This is a Satan that really cares about getting the tortures just right. An example would be the Civil Servants in Hell. Forced to adopt powder blue Jump Suits, try to imagine J Edgar Hoover and the Bee Gee's as disco dancing servants of the Devil. A truly inspiring novel, Robert Olen Butler has changed his voice once again. Thought provoking and fun, this Hell is able to be read on many levels.

Hell Gets Under Your Skin

"Hell" is one of those books for me, like "American Psycho" that got under my skin and made me think about life and the world a lot differently. I know this sounds strange but I was happy to walk around with hell in my mind during the several days I read it on my Kindle IPhone App. And that's what this book is about, not hell, (not the kindle Iphone app, either) but how life on earth is a kind of hell--But it's a really interesting hell, and as long as there are books like Butler's to read while I'm here, it could be worse. In short, this was a great book with a really cool ending.