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Last Exit to Brooklyn

I first came across the name Hubert Selby, Jr. on the DVD inlay of the movie Requiem for a Dream, which is based on a novel by him. The director of the movie, Darren Aronofsky was deeply influenced and impressed by Hubert Selby. This is what the DVD inlay said:

I was a public school kid from Brooklyn facing my first exams freshman year of college (Harvard), and I was terrified. I hit the library and tried to learn. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the word 'Brooklyn' Now, when you're from Brooklyn and you see anything related to Brooklyn, you're immediately interested. I pulled a worn copy of "Last Exit to Brooklyn" off the shelf. This was before the movie, and I had no clue what I holding. From sentence one, I was done, and so were my finals. I blew them off and I read. I read and I read and I screamed and I connected and I recited and I rejoiced. This was storytelling. This was understanding. This was a deep yet simple examination of what makes us human. I now knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to tell stories. -Darren Aronofsky

Last Exit to Brooklyn is easily one of the most gross, terrifying, intense and brutal books I've ever read. It is also perhaps the best and most powerful. The book is set in the 1950s, and is about the lives of people in Brooklyn. Full of violence, drugs, sex, and the most hideous crimes imaginable, the book examines the other side of the American Dream. The book actually has a bunch of short stories, each of which ends in the most horrible way for the main character possible. No one dies, but most would wish to rather die than go through all that they did.

This is not an easy book to read. Paragraphs extend to pages, and sentences go on for miles. Very wierd punctuation. No quotes. Its one of the most unusual styles of writing. And add to that the detail the stories are presented in. (WOW!) Hubert Selby has an amazing eye for observing what is going on around him. He presents such an honest, ruthless and brutal account of the stories that at times it becomes painful to read. But putting down the book is simply impossible. The writing style varies with the character that is being discussed. While talking about an educated and intelligent character, the narration is grammatically correct, while for others it becomes exclusively slang with no sense of grammar or spelling. There are some pages completely in uppercase (for a very loud and raucous character)! Also the tone varies according to what the main character is going through. When someone the main character is extremely drunk, for example, there are pages of completely incoherent text. In fact it becomes impossible to tell when the author is using first person and when he is using third person. This is art, and this is what makes the book a real master piece. Absolutely brilliant!

That said, this is not a book for everyone. That this book was banned in England and several other countries when it first came out gives an indication of this. However, it was later made into a movie by german director Uli Edel. This has become a major cult movie, just like the book. However, I am not sure if I am brave enough to be able to watch it...

Posted by ankit at January 15, 2026 09:07 PM | TrackBack