Review: No Exit

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Confession time--I haven't read much of Satre's philosophical work; though I would guess that's many people. However, after reading No Exit, I am much more intrigued. No Exit is a one-act play in which three people find themselves in a room without (wait for it...) an exit. They have been placed in here as their essential version of hell to wait out eternity. The surprise is the method in which hell is enacted. It's not filled with traditional sadists who want to throw these characters on the rack and watch them writhe in pain, but rather a balance of or rather an imbalance of the three characters is what makes it the quintessential hell. Each character seeds the anger and frustration as they each reveal their secrets and then their true selves, illustrating why they make the perfect threesome for eternal damnation. I found Satre dialogue engaging and that the characters were easy to formulate through their lines. It's a quick but fascinating read.

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