About this title: An unforgettable cast of characters inhabits the housing projects, bars and streets of Brooklyn: Georgette, a hopelessly romantic and tormented transvestite; Vinnie, a disaffected and volatile youth who has never been on the right side of the law; Tralala, who can find no escape from her loveless existence; and, Harry, a power-hungry strike leader with a fatal secret. Living on the edge, always walking on the wild side, their alienation and aggression masks a desperate, deep human need for affection and kinship. Banned in Britain on first publication in 1964, "Last Exit to Brooklyn" brought ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Castle Books
Date published: 1964
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Grove Press, NY
Date published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780802131379ISBN:0802131379
Description: Very Good. 0802131379. A reprint of this novel originally published in 1964. Front cover creased, else a clean, tight copy.; 0.9 x 8.1 x 5.3 Inches; 304 pages. read more
Edition: 1st paperback Ed
Binding: softcover
Publisher: Corgi Books
Date published: 1970
Description: Good+ Mass market paperback, spine creases, stress marks on cover, the post-trial edition, complete and unexpurgated, Introduction by Anthony Burgess, a novel, 317 pages. read more
Edition: 1st ptg thus
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Grove, NY
Date published: (1988)
Description: G PB. Edge wear, binding rubbed, corner creased. The rage & pain of the "other America", the powerless, homeless & dispossessed. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Grove
Date published: 5th printing, 1964
Description: Very Good/Very Good hard cover. 12mo, boards, 304pp. edgewear, small tears, scratches back dust jacket. light yellowing, clean & tight text. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Grove Press, Inc
Date published: 1965
Description: Good. 1st PB edition 1965, 4th printing. Solid spine, square book, a bump to bottom cover edge with corner creasing, tanning. Reliable and accurate service. read more
"A blur of pain, violence, bile, excrement, blood, booze, sperm, nausea, and loathing - in mid (20th) century Brooklyn, before everything debased and original in America became commonplace and boring. And did I mention power? There is power there - lurid, rotten, roiling power. I couldn't place his voice - an American Celine? No, Celine is bitterly funny - maybe an American Genet? He invokes Genet and he is sordid enough - but no, in the end, what comes to mind (bear with me) is Sherwood Anderson and Winesburg, Ohio - which makes no sense, probably. But Last Exit to Brooklyn is also a series of profiles/stories/narratives that are interconnected through a geographic (and existential) space. Well, that's as close as I can get - in the end, Selby is just Selby and what an interesting and creative writer he is - everything does not work, the conjunctions can tire, the run on sentences grow stale, the punctuation exudes a whiff of gimmickry, and the last section (Landsend) is the weakest part of the book. Still, I was often impressed - just when I thought I could start ignoring him, his voice dug a little deeper and made my brain bleed a little."
"I've seen Hubert Selby Jr.'s name bandied about as an influence for many contemporary writers, and I knew that it had been made into a movie, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Selby's style was immediately off-putting for me, and I just about gave up after about 30 pages. (He eschews literary conventions like quotation marks and apostrophes, not to mention coherent sentence structure.) Just as I was about to dismiss the book as garbage, he then changed his focus on another character, and started winning me over. There isn't a plot to speak of; it's just comprised of a few vignettes of people living in the slums of Brooklyn in the late 50's. To glean Selby's message (that life is hellish and grim) you have to just let his prose wash over you and keep reading. If you aren't thoroughly disgusted and plow onward in the book, you might be transported to that hell yourself."
"I have enjoyed all I have read by this Author except 'The Willow Tree' which seemed too optimistic in it's ending wheras I enjoy this author due to the gritteness of his characters and situations. Union leaders,Hookers,Transvestites and Drugs all spell out the situations within the book and the gradual descent of nearly every character is dealt with without any cloying morality. A fine book, The film was OK but the book surpasses it, Selby's writing has almost a machine gun type approach which can be unforgiving first time through but stick with it, It is worthwhile."
"I started reading this book and instantly thought that it read like a Tarantino film. Little did I know that Selby also wrote "Requiem for a Dream" - one of my favorite movies ever (if not one of the most depressing movies that I've ever seen in my life). I find a lot of similarities between Tarantino films and Requiem...
You know, this book ain't no picnic, bitch! (Yes, that was a Malibu's Most Wanted reference.) I swear there's a stretch of at least three pages where there are *no* punctuation marks at all. There are no quotations used to indicate who is talking. And the entire book is written in East-coast slang, from the people who are talking. But it simply contributes to its charm.
What the book has going for it is that it's harsh and brutal. It makes no attempt to hide the realities of so-called "lower-class living". It's probably the realest book that you've ever read, and it covers practically all ethnicities.
The Nation once wrote, in a review, that this book will leave you as a "different person - slightly changed, educated by pain". There's no better description of this book that I am currently aware of. You *will* be saddened, educated on the realities of life and, hopefully, better off for it, for your perspective of the lives around you, if all went according to plan, will be viewed through more compassionate eyes.
"The sun is supposed to light your body and warm it through right to your heart" - Hubert Selby Jr."
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