“Hell is for your edification and wisdom” #ashortstayinhell

It’s funny how sometimes your reading seems to connect, with one book leading naturally onto the next, albeit with no previous planning. That’s been happening to me lately, with the Eliot/Pound adjacent books, and now appears to be starting again! After finishing the Barnes I wasn’t sure what to read next; however, a recent arrival was a book I’d stumbled across online and found the concept irresistible. I sent away for it straight away and it seemed like the perfect follow up to Barnes’s ruminations on mortality – “A Short Stay in Hell” by Steven L. Peck. I wish I could remember where I saw it mentioned, but whoever nudged me in its direction, thank you! First published in 2012, “Hell…”, at 104 pages, is in novella territory but has a lot to say. Our narrator, Soren Johansson, is a faithful Mormon, and so on his death he expected to find an eternal hereafter where he would be reunited with his loved ones. However, the reality is somewhat different… Upon his demise, Soren discovers…