Koolaids: The Art of War

I found this book quite by chance through Amazon a couple of years back. An amazing book, a kaleidoscope of stories in a story, real and imagined, of the fates of war-torn lives, homosexuality and its taboos in the Middle East, San Francisco, dying of AIDS, memories of Beirut in the old days - it can get confusing at times, but never, never boring. A fantastic read.The reason I wanted to put in a review for it today, is that I just finished reading his latest book, "I, the Divine", and feel that "Kool Aids" is an important book to read if you want to discover this wonderful, wonderful writer!!

I highly recommend the book. Rabih Alameddine is a master and captures the friendships and introspection of gay men in San Francisco as they discover they have AIDS and face an early death. There are many voices in the book and they are interwoven in time and place (San Francisco and Beruit) and often seem anonymous which is why once I finished the book I started reading it again, because this time I had a better sense of the identity behind the voices. I think this is a really important book - not only because of the subject, but the writing style and the raw genuine emotion and empathy it is able to evoke. You really should read this book. Also an Unnecessary Woman was a really good read as well.

Original,conmovedor,te hace estar alerta todo el tiempo.Una maravilla,como todo lo que escribe este autor. No se lo pierdan! De verdad!

A darkly funny, beautiful and heartbreaking critique of abstraction when discussing war, disease, and relationships.

This beautiful book takes you inside the mind of a gay Lebanese man, tracing both the AIDS crisis and the tragedy of Beruit from a deeply humanistic POV.

Sublime writing. Creates the story and puts you right inside it.