Last Exit to Brooklyn (Evergreen Book)

This was my first experience with Selby Jr, so it took a little while for me to get into his style of writing. Paragraphs go on for pages, and there is virtually no punctuation in his writing. It was a little confusing to figure out which character was talking, because there was no quotations or paragraph breaks to indicate a change. But about 30 pages in, I got used to his style and then the story really took off for me. This novel is raw, gritty, and often violent. I found that many of the characters had no redeemable qualities, but this is also the sad truth of our world. Although Selby paints a picture that is often hard to stomach, it also is a picture that is real and needs to be told. Life isn't all sunshine and rainbows, and Selby transports us to a difficult time and place in American history.

As far as the question how would I describe the "plot of this book", one would say that it has no plot to speak of...LEtB ends pretty much the way it begins. That being said, it is a very perceptive and observant overview of the tragedy of what happens when people are born to, grow into, and live out their adulthood on what could only be described as a subhuman level of life and existence. Every aspect of their "lives" is related to sex, food, and personal security, and how to get, or keep, them. One could be correct in an observation that some 80% plus of their mental activity is essentially "reptilian brain-stem" activity, with the remainder of the brain-certainly the frontal lobes connected with reason-simply providing a very superficial patina of speech, upright walking, and dressing oneself to disguise the animal (or insect/reptile/ fish) within. The only possible results are violence, ugliness, and tragedy, and those are what happens!The rather eccentric text notwithstanding, I think that Mr. Selby does very good work in illustrating the kind of people who inhabit what Maxim Gorky more than a century ago called "the lower depths", and-unlike most other writers and dramatists discussing this-does NOT fall into the trap either of 'bad genes" or bad environment" as superficial attempts at "explanation". He simply relies on the narrative to tell the story of what happens to people who choose their lives bereft of any commitment to reason, good judgment, or even ordinary decency, and (still worse) what happens to their children...There is little or no romanticizing poverty (or its purported "helpers") and this too is a strength of the book, and its author.This may well have the status of a modern classic! As a work of literature, it certainly has not outgrown its relevance or importance. It is at least as applicable to many millions of people today as it was when it was first released a half century or so ago. The fact that no attempt at "solution" or "correction" to their self-inflicted and self-imposed degradation anywhere in his book is an additional point in its favor, understanding that sometimes evil is beyond remediation or cure.All told, it is an engaging read, a well written novel (or collection of short stories) and a book that I am glad to have read-even though the avoidance of the usual "happy ending", the book-and even each of the short stories-ends the squalid ways they begin-might dismay many readers.

After four readings in fifty years, this novel still it startles, both the subject matter and the stylistic invention. As literature one might compare it to Jackson Pollock - shocking, innovative, pushing the boundaries of what art can or should be. Violent and racist, filled with abuse and human cruelty, Hubert Selby, Jr. was the master of the underdogs, of the cast aside, the misfits, and lost souls, all presented with total transparency, for the author is nowhere to be found. Selby touches subjects no one touches, and even today, when we are inured to surprise, he still stops us cold.The structure is in three parts, but the central one, the longest, "Strike", might stand alone. Harry Black, the protagonist, discoverer of accidental love and its uncontrollable forces, immediately takes his place among the most unforgettable characters of America fiction: Queequeg (Moby Dick), Isabel Archer (The Portrait of a Lady), Jim Casey (The Grapes of Wrath), Blanche DuBois, (A Streetcar Named Desire), Jack Burden (All the King's Men), Joe Buck (Midnight Cowboy), The Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon (Night of the Iguana), Hester Prynne (The Scarlet Letter), Ethan Fromm, Billy Budd, and the others in our pantheon.Hubert Selby, Jr. ran away from home to the Merchant Marne as a teenager and never graduated from high school. Yet, out of sheer naivety and, "I needed money so I thought I'd try to write," he produced one of the greatest masterpieces of mid-twentieth century American literature. His gift is an unflinching verisimilitude of things hidden yet true.If you have never read it, or even heard of it, that's understandable due to it's controversial nature which continues to this day. It's not easy to shock in 2019, but this book, from 1953, still does, as much by it's characters and it's situations as by its startlingly transparent technique of eliminating quotation marks, and other indications of speech, yet managing to convey voices and situations as clearly as any radio play. The incessant dialogue of multiple speakers rings clear, entirely by tone, by Selby's flawless ear.Is this novel a unique and personal keening for the human condition, for our endless universal tale of love and loss, or is it a rank exploitation of human squalor and agony, a terrifying vision of hopelessness and hell?

A spectacular work of art boiling with relentless brutality, toxic relationships, the loss of innocence, and a seemingly endless stream of deprivation. Selby’s characters drip with rage and resentment, and yet… he finds time to talk about the moon and the warmth of early spring mornings.Last Exit to Brooklyn is not an easy read, and I wouldn’t recommend it to the average reader looking for an escape of some sort. But if you’re looking for savage honesty coupled with prose not unlike the music of jazz legends like Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, Selby is your man.

I had expected it to be more hardcore but for the time it was published 64 or 65 I am sure it was quite controversial and probably even banned in some markets. some of the stories seemed to leave a little to be desired in character profiles and description. however I did enjoy it for what it was but I guess I was really expecting to be blown away which I wasn't still is a worthwhile read and I do recommend it but I guess I am just desensitized by 2015 standards.

A heart wrenching book that explores themes of happiness, friendship, society and the interaction of all these things in NY. If you are a fan of Hubert Selby Jr, you will most likely like this book. It’s « strangely » written as per his usual style. It doesn’t shy away from heavy topics and forced the reader to be uncomfortable. I’ve read requiem for a dream and this book is just as good.

Last Exit to Brooklyn is essentially a collection of short stories, some with common characters, all taking place in the same rough neighbourhood in Brooklyn in the 1950s. The stories focus on a wide and colourful variety of characters almost all of whom are low-lifes and degenerates. The stories are raw and shocking, and they paint a dark and grim picture, although it is a rich picture and there is a sense of humanity that shines through the filth, immorality, perversion and desperation. It is not surprising that this book was the inspiration for  Trainspotting . Trainspotting

la cruda realidad de la vida en norteamerica y está a la altura de Charlkes Bukowski

Brilliant

I should have read this before Trainspotting. Irvine Welsh was obviously influenced by Last Exit, but he managed to make it funny - unlike this book which wrung me out.The book is disturbing in its violence yet Selby's eyes are like an Argus, peering into the alleys of life in The Projects and in the Brooklyn docks - bringing to light the tragic lives of the queers and the fairies , the alcoholics, the perverts and the working classes and the dysfunctional families of the time. A gut-wrenching novel that spares nothing to expose the darkest secrets and desires of society.