Discover new selections
$8.97 with 40 percent savings
Digital List Price: $14.99

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Sold by Amazon.com Services LLC.
Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Rabih Alameddine
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Koolaids Kindle Edition

by Rabih Alameddine (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings
“Daring, dazzling . . . A tough, funny, heart-breaking book” by the National Book Award–nominated author of An Unnecessary Woman (The Seattle Times).
 
Detailing the impact of the AIDS epidemic in America and the Lebanese civil war in Beirut on a circle of friends and their families during the 1980s and 1990s, this “absolutely brilliant” novel mines the chaos of contemporary experience, telling the stories of characters who can no longer love or think except in fragments (Amy Tan). Clips and quips, vignettes and hallucinations, tragic news reports and hilarious short plays, conversations with both the quick and the dead, all shine their combined lights to reveal the way we experience life today in the debut novel of the author Michael Chabon calls “one of our most daring writers.”
 
“A provocative, emotionally searing series of connected vignettes . . . For a nonlinear novel the images chosen retain a remarkable cohesion. Often sexually frank or jarringly violent, they merge into a graphic portrait of two cultures torn from the inside.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“[A] refreshing statement of honesty and endurance . . . Funny, brave, full of heart and willing to say things about war and disease, sexual and cultural politics that have rarely been said so boldly or directly before.” —The Oregonian
 
“Rabih Alameddine is one rare writer who not only breaks our hearts but gives every broken piece a new life.” —Yiyun Li
 
Read more
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    233 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Grove Press
  4. Publication date
    September 15, 2015
  5. File size
    3.4 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
Next slide of product details
Unwell Hydration from Alex Cooper
Hydrate & focus with every sip Shop now

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review


"Daring, dazzling . . . a tough, funny, heart-breaking book."—Greg Burkman, Seattle Times

"Refreshing . . . often brave, full of heart . . . This novel is vigorously ambitious, its voice unique."—Portland Oregonian

"An absolutely brilliant book—daring in its somersault of literary feats and allusions, an antidote for anyone who suffers from the blahs or an excess of self-satisfaction. I hope it's widely read."—Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club

"Provocative, emotionally searing."—Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher

Rabih Alameddine's "Koolaids is the companion guide to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Diary of Anne Frank, and the history of the world. It is hysterical in both senses, hilarious and loudly disturbing. (Where else does Krishnamurti meet Eleanor Roosevelt and Tom Cruise?) Like Zen koans, Koolaids issues pronouncements while pointing out the absurdities of any kind of truth. It contemplates the meaning of death while redefining the meaninglessness of life. It looks at the great cycle of history, destiny, and literature and puts them on spin and recycle. This is an absolutely brilliant book - daring in its somersault of literary feats and allusions, an antidote for anyone who suffers from the blahs or an excess of self-satisfaction. I hope it's widely read. Just think of the fascinating dinner conversations and epitaphs it could spawn. I think Kant, Jung, and Borges would approve." --Amy Tan

"Alameddine is a respected painter who brings great visual skill to his first literary work. The novel is really an effectively conceived collage of the viewpoints of several characters. ...War, death, sex in a morally empty and meaningless world--when mixed on Alameddine's palette, they make for fascinating reading." --Library Journal

"[T]he AIDS epidemic in America, and the Lebanese civil war, are combined here by debut novelist Alameddine into a provocative, emotionally searing series of connected vignettes ...For a nonlinear novel the images chosen retain a remarkable cohesion. Often sexually frank or jarringly violent, they merge into a graphic portrait of two cultures torn from the inside." --Publishers Weekly

"[A] refreshing statement of honesty and endurance ...funny, brave full of heart and willing to say things about war and disease, sexual and cultural politics that have rarely been said so boldly or directly before." --The Sunday Oregonian

"Koolaids is a wildly imaginative tour de force--impressive, stunning. Alameddine's is the authentic voice of the prophet, speaking from the man-made wilderness of the twentieth century. Like all great prophets, he speaks with equal parts anger and love. Dark and funny and despairing and literate, and finally, in its unvarnished truth, affirming: 'Amid all the craziness, I am here. We are here.'" --Fenton Johnson, author of Scissors, Paper, Rock and Geography of the Heart: A Memoir

"This is a fantastic novel that every American should read. In an era in which the most conventional yuppie fiction rooted in suburban angst is being passed off as the New American Literature, Alameddine shows how formal invention can derive organically from the emotions of the experiences at stake, and not glib device. Koolaids communicates with crystal clarity because the content reflects the need for justice. This is the kind of writing that can transform American culture." --Sarah Shulman, author of Rat Bohemia, Girls, Visions and Everything and Empathy

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00XAQ1R4O
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; Reprint edition (September 15, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 15, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.4 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 233 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Rabih Alameddine

Rabih Alameddine

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Rabih Alameddine was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese parents, and grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon. He was educated in England and America, and has an engineering degree from UCLA and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. He is also the author of the novel Koolaids: Or The Art of War, the story collection, The Perv, and, most recently, I, the Divine: A Novel in First Chapters. His pieces have appeared in Zoetrope, The Evening Standard and Al-Hayat, among others. Mr. Alameddine, a painter as well as an author, has had solo gallery exhibitions in cities throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. He has lectured at numerous universities including M.I.T and the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. Mr. Alameddine was the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in 2002. He divides his time between San Francisco and Beirut.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
76 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top reviews from the United States

  • ESP Vegan
    5.0 out of 5 stars I highly recommend the book
    Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    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.
    4 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Joe Wilson
    5.0 out of 5 stars A critique of the abstract
    Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    A darkly funny, beautiful and heartbreaking critique of abstraction when discussing war, disease, and relationships.
    2 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • R. Aldrich
    4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting juxtapositions
    Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2000
    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.
    4 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • NDM
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful writing from an erudite writer
    Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    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.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Else Hamayan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime
    Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Sublime writing. Creates the story and puts you right inside it.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Sean
    2.0 out of 5 stars Overly self-indulgent
    Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    What a pity. I found myself skipping over the sections on Beirut and politics. “An unnecessary woman” still remains his best work ever!
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • narwwjd
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Excellent writer. Kept me engaged.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Vivek Tejuja
    5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking and Real
    Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2015
    When you write a book about AIDS and what it brings in its wake, is not an easy task for sure. Rabih Alameddine jumped to the scene and was well-known right after “An Unnecessary Woman”. The book just jumped at readers and they I think too notice of him then. Of course before that, there was “Koolaids” and some more books that he had written but this discussion is about “Koolaids”.

    To me reading “Koolaids” was a harrowing experience. Why? Because I am gay and I didn’t know how to react to a book on AIDS, and what it takes in its wake. I cannot for the life of me imagine something like this happening to me or my loved ones, so whenever I read something like this, I am completely overwhelmed by it.

    “Koolaids” is about men who love men, men who suffer by loving men and men who cope as their worlds fall apart and changes around them. It is a fresh new voice (then when the book released) and is very different from his other books. It details the AIDS epidemic through the 80s and the 90s and with that the angle of the Lebanese Civil War that accounts for the book.

    The characters are plenty – they love and dream in fragments. As a reader, I just gave in to the book without trying to make much of it in the first fifty pages and when I started, I was too entranced by the language and over all plot to care about the writing.

    “Koolaids” is what it is – a gritty and real book on what it takes to go on living in the face of death and how to sometimes just give in, knowing that nothing can be done now. It is stories such as these that deeply affect us and our lives.
    2 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Cliente Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Un lujo
    Reviewed in Spain on May 28, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Original,conmovedor,te hace estar alerta todo el tiempo.Una maravilla,como todo lo que escribe este autor. No se lo pierdan! De verdad!
    Report

Report an issue


Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report