Koolaids

Rating:
Summary: Exquisite tapestry
Review: Chronicling the effect of AIDS and war on the denizens of Beirut, Alameddine's dazzling novel has been cursed by a bland bookjacket. Blending humor and emotional depth, the story achieves an interpretation of the everyday chaos of life. If you're searching for something uplifting and stimulating to read, this is the book.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting juxtapositions
Review: Coming from a Lebanese-American family and living in Washington, I was interested in what Alemeddine was putting together in this book. Although it took me some time to touch each narrative to its central character -- there're quite a few central characters here -- I found the treatment of their separate but eerily similar situations sensitive and sensual. This is definitely worth reading, and I would hope that more English-speaking Lebanese and Lebanese-American writers come forth with valuable works.

Rating:
Summary: Original and insightful novel.
Review: For any gay man who participated in gay/queer communities in the late 1980's, reading "Koolaids" will be like experiencing a long, accurate and precise memory of those furious and painful times (details of life during the epidemic are interspersed with vignettes about war-era Beirut. Trust me - it works.)
"Koolaids" is not just a good book. It is angry (Remember when people were angry? Ah, what a lark!), funny, queer and smart. It is original. Many previous AIDS memoirs/fictions have been precious accounts of loss, sweaters and Paris. Really. If you pick up the three most famous gay male memoirs about AIDS, you will read as much about France and good cheese and fine wine as you will about loss and disease. These books say more about the authors' sartorial and gastronomic preferences than about the epidemic or the times. "Koolaids", on the other hand, reminds us of the uses of anger and grief, and of what the virus did to individuals, communities and a nation. By returning the reader to a wholly different era, "Koolaids" makes history.

Rating:
Summary: buy this book
Review: I guess there is not much I can add, but being an Arab gay the book really touched me. A friend recommended me the book, so I recommended it to everyone of my friends.

The author is daring, you won't see that every day. Hope to see more books like this one. Every person should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible cross cultural experience
Review: I received this book as a birthday gift. As a Lebanese person, I found this book extremely enlightening and charming. It was everything I always felt, since I shared with the author a similar experience of growing up during the war times in Beirut. This book brought back old memories that are both painful and joyful.

Mr Alameddine's style is impeccable. You fly from character to character, from reality to dreams, to fiction, and then back to reality. His depiction of the Lebanese culture in the "play" he wrote about the two lebanese women in Paris is hilarious and unfortunately very true.

I think every Lebanese person should read this book. It connects very well with any person who grew up in two different cultures. It is time for our culture to face reality and deal with the issues of homosexuality and AIDS. I ordered Alameddine's next book "The Perv" and I can't wait to receive it.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible cross cultural experience
Review: I received this book as a birthday gift. As a Lebanese person, I found this book extremely enlightening and charming. It was everything I always felt, since I shared with the author a similar experience of growing up during the war times in Beirut. This book brought back old memories that are both painful and joyful.

Mr Alameddine's style is impeccable. You fly from character to character, from reality to dreams, to fiction, and then back to reality. His depiction of the Lebanese culture in the "play" he wrote about the two lebanese women in Paris is hilarious and unfortunately very true.

I think every Lebanese person should read this book. It connects very well with any person who grew up in two different cultures. It is time for our culture to face reality and deal with the issues of homosexuality and AIDS. I ordered Alameddine's next book "The Perv" and I can't wait to receive it.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Find
Review: I think this is a kind of a masterpiece. It's one of the most extraordinary books I have read in a long time. The writing is crisp, the concept is fresh, and in spite of the seriousness of the subject matter, this book is drop dead funny. I really loved this book. It's the real thing.

Rating:
Summary: buy this book
Review: This book is brilliant, able to be humorous and entertaining even as it takes you into some of the darkest moments of our time. The juxtaposition of the AIDS crisis in America and the War in Lebanon is an effective choice, it creates a new perspective to two very emotionally difficult and recent parts of our history that we are still collectively coming to terms with. as a gay lebanese-american i found the voices of Alameddine's characters to be particularly haunting. Mr. Alameddine is an exciting and daring writer and I anxiously anticipate his new works while re-reading his currently published books.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning. Pure poetry
Review: This is an extraordinary book. I read it in a swoop. The language, imagery, and sheer passion of the writing held me rapt. I am half Lebanese, I was raised in Lebanon and since the Civil War I've lived in many countries. Like Alameddine says, I no longer "fit" - this is true of so many people who have come to America and I don't think there's a single novel that writes so beautifully, so disturbingly, so deliriously about the sense of dislocation one feels when one is "of" one country, yet "in" another. Aside from this, as a novel pure and simple, this is an extraordinary book, poetic, charged and utterly riveting. A must read for all.