cbr17bingo: borrow – borrowed from my library
Well, this was depressing—but also kind of fascinating. Our narrator Soren, a devout Mormon, dies and ends up in Hell, where he learns that there is a true religion (yes, one that is currently practiced on earth), and it’s not Mormonism. Hell is real, but there are different versions of it, and Soren is sent to one inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’s story “The Library of Babel” (which I recall reading and enjoying in college). In this library is every singe book that has ever been or could ever be written. This means that plenty of books are going to be completely or mostly gibberish because of the random arrangement of letters, numbers, and punctuation. Soren and the others (all White, English-speaking Americans) in this version of Hell will be able to leave and go to Heaven when they find the book that accurately depicts their own life. It is possible, but the number of books contained in this library, while not infinite, is so large it can’t be grasped.
We learn early on that Soren has been there for billions of years. That’s billions with a “b.” And he has come nowhere close to finding his book.
The worst thing about life in the library is the monotony. All of the people are the similar, the books are indistinguishable from the outside, everyone wears a white robe, and all they can see for miles in any direction is books. They are comfortable: they get beds, showers, kiosks that give them whatever food they want, and no one can die, but the sameness and daunting task get to everyone. Soren describes ways they cope, things that break up the monotony, and the novella in some ways ends up being a reflection on hope, though it still feels quite bleak at the end.
I know for some people, this sent them into an existential tailspin. I didn’t find myself asking a lot of existential questions afterwards, but I might just not be in a place to do that right now. My cognitive and emotional loads are already fairly full. I found a description of why the idea of an eternal Hell seems problematic and how this version of Hell is meant as punishment but isn’t eternal was very interesting. However, I would add that if it’s not eternity but requires hundreds of billions of years to get out, that seems like a distinction without a difference.
This was a really interesting book conceptually. Don’t expect a lot of character depth, and you certainly can’t expect much plot, but I’m glad I read it. I gave it 3.5 stars rounded up for creativity and occasional moments of profundity, even though I didn’t experience it as profoundly as others.