Rating: 
Summary: Chilling
Review: This is my first Selby read, but it won't be my last. Harry, Tyrone, Marion and Sara have been burned into my memory for years to come. The author's excellent characterization, as well as his nonconventional grammar techniquies, make this well worth reading. It must be noted, though, that the writing style may be difficult to get used to at first, due to the long, blocky paragraphs and absence of punctuation. Still, like reading Shakespeare, you get used to it and the reading becomes like seeing the events unfold before your eyes.By the way- I never saw the movie, and I have no intention to. Once you read the book, you realize you have no need to see on film the images that are already there in your mind.
Rating:
Summary: The Downward Spiral
Review: The visionary that is Hubert Selby Jr. shines through in this portrayel of 4 people, all struggling to discover the happiness that they continue to be denied. The tale is told quite flawlessly of the fated 4. Their quest for joy starts with the pursuit of a fix; whether it is the drug that their bodies' are convinced they need, or being able to fit into that dress that once looked stunning. The fix is obtainable, but it comes at a high cost. You also can't forget that once you're at the top, you can only fall.
The technique used by the author can be confusing at times. Selby throws away the quotation marks that divide the story from the speaking. At first, i was turned off by this. By the middle, though, it becomes standard enough to easily comprehend. Selby aslo has a unique brand of descriptive writing which is displayed time and time again in this novel.
This novel is one of my favorites. It has the twists and turns to keep readers eager to read to the end. Selby delivers from start to finish! Read this book if you want a rewarding challenge.
Rating:
Summary: just like the movie...almost
Review: this is the screenplay of the movie..if youd rather read the movie than see it (altough there are pictures) then this is your book...it is good, there are a few noticable differences between this and the movie, but it is great if you are a fan of darren aronofsky....if you do like darren aronofsy you should chekc out his "book of the ants"
Rating:
Summary: A Great And Moving Novel
Review: The way Selby puts this novel together is as if he lived through this story. He uses such strong descriptivness and had me in a trance the whole way through. The movie is also great, but nothing like the book. I warn you now if you read this you will never want to stop reading. And the ending is what makes this even more powerful.
Rating:
Summary: THE GREATEST BOOK/MOVIE EVER
Review: When I first saw this movie I was simply blown away the way the director takes this unbelivable book and can mold it into this spellbinding movie it blows my mind Jared Leto plays a great role as harry and what suprised me was how much he actually looked like what I had pictured as Harry. What is great about this movie is that you can have a good time being sad after watching this movie you realize how bad life with drugs can be and you know you can never sink to that low I will openly admit that I cried several times during this movie I recommend it with my highest regards and still to this day belive it is the greatest movie of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: MUST HAVE- MUST READ
Review: yikes. such a superb book. reading about sarah and her addiction to diet drugs, i felt like i was living it myself. very descriptive. i couldnt wait till i finished it.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet Jesus
Review: Never before in my life; as a guy, as someone who has stomached everything from videotaped executions in Pakistan and Afghanistan by machine gun to being able to read about the Holocaust, abortion and serial killers; have I wanted to cry at the end of a book. This book blew my mind. Both the book and movie are amazing, and you'll never forget it.
Rating:
Summary: The most emotional and horrific book I've ever read
Review: When I opened this book, the first of Selby's I've read, I was prepared to feel sad. But there is no word for the pain and emotion I felt when I'd finished it. The story revolves around four characters: Sara Goldfarb, a desperately lonely widow who wants nothing more than to be on a television quiz show, her junkie son Harry, his girlfriend Marion, and his best friend Tyrone C. Love. As Harry and his friends come up with a plan to become powerful heroin dealers, Sara, the most innocent and loveable pathetic character ever, becomes addicted to diet pills, the only way she can see to loose weight so she can fit in her red dress for the television. Each character slowly begins to descend into the hell of addiction, and as they do the reader is subject to the most brutal passages of drug abuse and false hope found in literature. If you're one who responds to emotions in a book or a movie, read this book. It will not be forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: Greatness.
Review: There's a reason why most reviews for this novel give it five stars, and the ones that don't all give it four - like the aftermath to an explosion, it will stay with you for days. Selby's greatest achievement here is humanizing the unlovable in a setting so frightening that many readers will no doubt question the accuracy of its depiction after they've recovered somewhat from the pounding. True, Harry Goldfarb is never a particularly sympathetic character, but it is possible to understand and even accept him, to some degree, before heroin erases his individuality. This goes for just about all of them; as I read, I knew that I should harbour antipathy towards the disgustingly supercilious pseudo-intellectual Marion, but I couldn't bring myself to. Perhaps "humanizing the unlovable" is a poor way to put it. Here's a more accurate statement: These characters will be too familiar to the reader to just brush away with a simple judgment. _You've met these people._ The angle of the plot concerning Harry's mother Sara is unspeakably brutal. We've all heard those exposés on the news about how con artists cheat lonely old people, but chances are those stories always seemed removed and far away, mere abstract evils to be condemned and then forgotten; this one makes itself impossible to write off with the force of a boot to the gut. It's oddly reminiscent of nineteenth-century Naturalism in the way it combines realism with staggeringly powerful drama; one might consider it to be, in a way, the rightful successor to the likes of Emile Zola's L'Assommoir. Selby thrusts you as close to the events as possible and makes you watch; he writes with rage and pathos, but he's not out to exploit your emotions. The book couldn't care less what you think of it; its job is to show you a truth, and once you get onboard that's what it'll do whether you like it or not. Selby's prose is not particularly rich or poetic, certainly not subtle, and his vocabulary is limited by necessity due to the setting; his formless style is used not as a deliberate modernist technique, but as a way to make the book as explosive as possible. A sentence picks you up and carries you with it. This is only right; excessive emphasis on technique and subtlety would, I think, only have kept the story from slamming forward without pause. Once you're done with the book, questions will arise in your head, most notably "Just how much truth is in this, exactly?" This is inevitable when dealing with a book of this nature; it's to Selby's immense credit that these questions don't arise while you're actually reading the book, but only after you're done, washed ashore with ringing in your ears. I don't pretend to be qualified to answer them, but my guess is "A lot." I also don't pretend to know what you're going to think of Requiem for a Dream, but I am certain that you need to read it. And while you're at it, pick up "Tulsa" by Larry Clark; it's the perfect companion piece.
Rating:
Summary: loss of reality
Review: Evanescense:tending to fade from sight. The whole point of this book is to show how easily life, and reality, can fade and be lost. To watch Harry, Marion, and Tyrone fall into fallacy and self-delusion is depressing and horrifying. They believe that everything is under control, that they'll have a pound of pure, that they're not addicted, that they won't screw it up. But slowly, as time goes on, you begin to see how they lose themselves, and desperate they become. Each one refuses to see their lives crumble and become destroyed, until it's too late. And poor Sara Goldfarb just wants to lose some weight, and becomes addicted to diet pills. Already suffering from minor mental problems, the addiction spins until it brings out the very worst of her mentality. When brought to the hospital, it shows the truth of the way our hospitals work. A deep, dark provocative story of loss of truth and reality.
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