Customer Reviews

CliffsNotes on Sartre's No Exit & The Flies

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My mother told me she had to read the original "Huis Clos" in French class. Being interested in unorthodox interpretations of Hell (such as the beautiful Grey Town in C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce") I've always been curious about "No Exit." At last Mama bought it for me. While "No Exit" wasn't as captivating a tale as I anticipated, it has its own merits. It's very... well... "out there." When I try to find words to describe it, my face twists up in knots. I've read the highly philosophical sci-fi work "White Bread" by William Meyer, and yet "No Exit" is the only book I've ever read that I can describe just by saying "That was WEIRD!" Do you like bizarre literature? Read "No Exit."

I think if I were one of the characters in this little drama, I'd be Inez. Sadly enough, she reminds me of myself. On the other hand, if I were trapped in a hotel room for eternity, I wouldn't act stuffy and grown-up like Sartre's characters. I'd probably begin by building a fort out of those accursed sofa cushions. Hey, I'm a kid.

What I like about Garcin is his straightforward honesty. He doesn't weasel-word around his sins the way Estelle does... "Cosi fan tutte," as Mozart would say. "Women are like that." On the other hand, if I were confronted as he was with the hotel room's open door, I would have run outside to wander the halls, or at least propped the portal open!

Read "No Exit," and enjoy.

I have searched for this out of print CliffsNotes on NO EXIT for a long time. Thank you Amazon. It was worth the wait!