This is a rare case where the novel and the movie are equally amazing: Selby, a former marine and heroin addict, shows the American Dream as a chimera ultimately leading to destruction, while serving some way too timely critique of failing public institutions as well as media overload, beauty culture, and (also prescription) drugs as means to numb the masses. Darren Aronofsky has later turned the in-your-face prose into a visual masterpiece that is just as hard to stomach. While Selby, born in 1...

I reread 'Requiem for a Dream' by Hubert Selby Jr. It's a brilliant novel that hasn't lost its edge and relevance over time. What's more, it was equally brilliantly adapted into a film by Darren Aronofsky. The novel is uncompromisingly harsh, energetic, and powerful to the point of trembling in your hands. Contrary to claims that there are four main characters in the book, I believe there's only one protagonist, and that's — Her Majesty Addiction. Somewhere in Brooklyn, lonely widow Sara dreams ...

Πρόκειται για μια νεκρολογία ονείρων που ξεκινάει με υπερκατανάλωση εικονικής χαράς και παραισθήσεις ευτυχίας, τα οποία διαφημίζονται και πωλούνται στο ευρύ κοινό της παράκρουσης και του εθισμού. Εξαρτημένες συνειδήσεις απο δανεικές αυταπάτες που καλύπτουν το κενό ανάμεσα στα ερείπια της ψυχής και τα ναυάγια της ζωής. Το μυθιστόρημα αυτό είναι αμείλικτο μπροστά σε έναν ατόφιο εκφυλισμό, σε μία γλυκιά σήψη καταστροφής μπερδεμένης με εξαρτήσεις κάθε είδους και σταδιακής αποδόμησης της σκληρής αλήθ...

“Si el SEÑOR no edificare la casa, en vano trabajan los que la edifican…” Salmo 127, 1 Con esta cita Hubert Selby Jr. da inicio a su novela y sienta las bases de su tesis, una cita que prosigue así: ”si el SEÑOR no guardare la ciudad, en vano vela la guardia.” El SEÑOR no estaba velando la casa de los personajes de esta desesperanzada novela y la desazón y la condición que anida en sus almas va a realizar su trabajo a conciencia hasta conseguir llevarlos al fondo más abyecto de la desespera...

Among the people who try to find the meaning of the dreams or even interpret them, there are some for whom the mere hint of any positive dream is Life. The solitude, oblivious to the surrounding and the troubles which keep them wide awake in the darkest nights, is what they look for feeling them as a whole. Unable to find it, these ill-fated souls stimulate their solitude by poisoning their veins to save themselves from the madness that is leisurely side-walking toward them. Little do they know ...

MAN. That's some fucked up shit, right there. I have so much to say that I don't know where to begin. I've seen the movie, I knew what to expect - but I still feel a deep sadness, revulsion, and shock after finishing the book. It's just... traumatizing. Brilliant, but traumatizing.I'll say now that if you're concerned about spoilers - just move on. I cannot avoid spoilers in this one... so continue reading if you want, but don't bitch if you get spoiled on the book or movie.It's been years since...

When I first watched the film back in 2001 it was at a time when I didn't really read that much. I thought about reading the novel, but didn't. When I did finally pick it up, back around 2010, it became a sort of turning point for me. I just assumed it was written in the late 90s, and got a big surprise when I learnt it was in fact the late 70s. Reading it again now its lost none of its youthful energy; its punchy grittiness; its gut-wrenching power: the last third in particular still held me in...

Selby’s novels are transgressive masterpieces with a bigness of heart and a strange, spiritual tenderness. The epigraph to this book alludes to Selby’s faith (in God) and I can see him writing about these doomed dope fiends with the compassion of a pastor tending to his flock. This heartbreaking novel follows the decline of four distinct Americans—young working-class white male Jew, young middle-class white female Jew, young working-class black non-Jew, and elderly widow. All four are addicts th...

We all want to have better lives. When I was young, I wanted to be a teacher my father said no money in teaching. So, I wanted to be an agriculturist he said you will be digging dirt till the day you die. So, I wanted to be a priest priests die with their ass dirty as no one takes care of them. So, what? Why not be a doctor? Okay. After becoming a medtech, what? But he did not have money to send me to a medical school. Ha ha ha ha In my iPod, I have this song by The Pussycat Dolls. One morning, ...

Am I the only person in the world who thought this book was terrible? From the Amazon reviews, apparently so. The book is all narrative and dialouge. In other words, all telling with virtually no "showing." And what's up with cramming everyone's dialogue into the same paragraph so you can't always tell who is speaking? Why not just break it normally so it's clear? Or for goodness sake, use quotation marks. And can you get any more pretentious than being too good to use an apostraphe when you wri...