Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The REAL American Dream!!, 19 Jul 1999
By A Customer
Another Selby classic, about two friends who decide it's time they carved themselves a slice of the American Dream. They work hard, stay sober and earn enough to buy a large amount of high grade drugs. As dealers, they enjoy unlimited success, but as they start to dabble, they lose their money, their livelihoods and their souls. And as for the poor women in their lives ... Less gut-churning than Selby's nastier work, this is a great book to start out with if you're new to him, with charcters you can feel for. It's a grim piece of work - all of Selby's books are - but it's also unforgettable. Buy it today and you'll thank yourself forever.
|
|
|
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Selby genius, 19 Aug 2002
You might have seen the brilliant Darren Aronofsky film adaptation and wondered what the book is like. Short answer, genius. It is written in Selby's phonetic style which may take some people a while to get used to. The book takes a while to get warmed up as Selby likes to show the good times in summer before the winter destruction. It is amazing to read something so brilliantly written and so powerfully negative. An immensely thought-provoking novel about addiction and degeneration. The book is probably on a par with the film that followed over 20 years after it was written.
|
|
|
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Harrowing story of hope and drugs, 14 Oct 2005
Selby's 'RFAD' follows the stories of four dreamers. Harry, Tyrone and Marion are small time drug users who dream of escaping their lives by accruing money from drug deals until they have enough to escape the streets forever. They are all determined to avoid the fates of other users. Sara, Harry's ageing mother, is on a shortlist to appear on TV and dreams of wearing her favourite red dress, now several sizes too small. Nothing helps her lose weight until she goes to a doctor who prescribes 'diet pills' (in reality a mixture of amphetamines and downers), which slowly take over her life. The drugs, originally a means to an end for all the characters, become the end in themselves, sounding the requiem for all their dreams.
'RFAD' is a book about hope, and how drugs can both give it and take it away from you. Harry and Marion use drugs to feel good but it is their dreams that keep them going. Sara is lonely, sad and old, and the promise of TV (her fix) gives her a reason to go on living. The pills give her hope that she will look good when she gets there. Selby brilliantly builds up their stories, and the way in which the drugs take on gradually more and more importance in their lives is very subtly done. At no point does he moralise about the evils (or otherwise) of drugs, he just lets the stories unfold. The contrast between Harry, Marion, Tyrone and Sara's lives at the start of the book and the end is harrowing, as their existences become more drug dependent and more horrific.
'RFAD' is one of the most brutal and harrowing books I have ever read. I found Sara's story very disturbing and particularly well told. Selby uses a mix of fluid prose and dialect to keep the story moving along quickly. It is a fairly short book, but is unrelentingly grim. If you are looking for a nice story with a happy ending, definitely go elsewhere. It is also riddled with explicit sex and drug usage, so won't be everyone's cup of tea. It is, however, a brilliantly executed, brutal, upsetting and harrowing piece of writing that deserves to be widely read.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Hubert Selby Jr.
by Hubert Selby Jr.
by Hubert Selby Jr
![Requiem For A Dream [DVD] [2001]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BWF13GY1L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Ellen Burstyn
by Hubert Selby Jr.
