Hubert Selby Jr. (1928–2004)
Author of Last Exit to Brooklyn
About the Author
Image credit: Photo: Sylvia Plachy
Works by Hubert Selby Jr.
Associated Works
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (2013) — Contributor — 141 copies
Conversations with the Capeman: The Untold Story of Salvador Agron (2004) — Introduction, some editions — 5 copies
X-Ray No. 7 — Contributor — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Selby Jr., Hubert
- Birthdate
- 1928-07-23
- Date of death
- 2004-04-26
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, USA
- Cause of death
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Places of residence
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Education
- Stuyvesant High School
- Occupations
- author
teacher of creative writing - Organizations
- United States Merchant Marine
University of Southern California
Members
Discussions
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby, Jr. (Bowie's Top 100 for July) in 75 Books Challenge for 2016 (September 2016)
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 27
- Also by
- 7
- Members
- 6,854
- Popularity
- #3,567
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 92
- ISBNs
- 156
- Languages
- 18
- Favorited
- 27
- Touchstones
- 123
Selby introduces us to Harry, Tyrone (Harry's best friend), Marion (Harry's girlfriend), and Sara (Harry's mother). The first three are heroin addicts determined to make it rich dealing so they can live the rest of their lives in more normal pursuits, like travel and small business ownership. Sara is a stereotypical overweight Jewish mother who has lost her husband. She receives some kind of telemarketing call that makes her believe she will be on a television show. In an effort to lose weight, she begins taking "diet pills" (which turn out to be amphetamines). Let's just say she fares as poorly as the heroin addicts.
I love a good dark book, but this one oddly starts off pretty dull, in part because the heroin addict sections are written in a style meant to evoke a brain on drugs. It takes a bit of time to get used to the style, and while I admire the effort, it's really not very interesting to read what is essentially narrated garbled thoughts for pages on end.
The latter half is much better in the sense of it being like a car accident - - you can't look away even though it is just horrific. Honestly, this book should be used in high schools with freshmen . . .there's basically no way anyone would ever do drugs of any kind after reading it. That's really the best aspect; Selby does an amazing job of communicating the lack of control and agency left to these human beings once the addiction fully seizes them.
The intro to the book indicates this book is about the dangers of the American dream . . .oddly, I didn't get that message from it even though I was actively looking.
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