THE LIVING END by Stanley Elkin (Review)

144 Pages

When character Ellerbee finds himself shot dead in a robbery of his liquor store, he is soon transported to the pearly gates of Heaven, only to be casted straight to the center Hell to learn his lesson.

Basic Thoughts

Even thinking about this book right now is making me sluggish.

I’m going to try to make my words short on this, but in basic terms, I did not enjoy this book at all. I thought it might be a clever concept, as it started off comedic when the “main character” was running his liquor store, etc. That part was entertaining.

After he is killed and sent to hell, however, we don’t even see Ellerbee anymore, as a new, less interesting character comes into play.

DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON WHEN THE AUTHOR TRIED GIVING DIALOGUE TO JESUS AND GOD.

Pros

• Interesting start (first 30 pages)
• It’s short

Cons

• Sacrilegious
• The dialogue between God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary, etc is trash
• Boring characters
• Boring premis

 

Overall View

I usually have a lot to say about books I don’t like, however, this one was just so short and so awful I can’t think of anything else.

Do not wast your time, as this book will leave you feeling muddled in the mind. I don’t even want to think about it anymore.

The plot line was hard to follow/didn’t really make sense, the characters were like stale crackers, and the whole premise was just blown around page 30.

Avoid this one at all costs. Trust me.

Final Rating:

Characters: 1.5 / 5.0

Action/Dialogue: 1.0 / 5.0

Overall Story: 0.5 / 5.0

FINAL RATING: 1.0 / 5.0

 

Final Thoughts:

I disliked this book so much I nearly didn’t write a review for it, but I figured that would be unfair of me to limit this blog to only books I enjoyed, as that ruins the whole premise of what I’m trying to do here.

I hope you take my warning of this book seriously.

Avoid it.

Even if it is just the ramblings of an English Major.

Best,

Daniel xx