Koolaids: The Art of War

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.

clever. i am involved, i want to stop because there is just too much to deal with in those pages, my eyes are constantly filling with tears, but i cannot. beirut is a city i love, and death is something i do not like. and i cannot understand how cruel, simply cruel, living can be. i just wish deeply that the wirter does not have aids, it would be painful. yes, from a very egocentric personal point of view. sorry. war, death, aids, being gay, all are personal stuff.

Loved it! this book is a must have and a must read. I devoured it, and it devoured me! I wish more lebanese writers have the guts to express their minds. More More I want more!

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.

This book is the best book I have read in a long time, a true masterpiece. It is the only book I began rereading right after finishing it. Both heart-achingly sad and hilariously funny, It shines through with a remarkable wit. Comparing and contrasting the Lebanese civil war and the AIDS epidemic in the US was very effective. This is a must read book for everyone.