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Summary: Enough already with the drag queens, Hubert!
Review: Having grown up on the very streets of Brooklyn (albeit a decade and a half later) where Mr. Selby's storys take place, I am puzzled as to why drag queens populate every chapter of this book. You would think from this book that every adult male in Brooklyn wants to sleep with drag queens. Mr Selby took me in with his believabilty in each chapter only to lose me with his harping on gay lust. As I said, I grew up on the streets of Brooklyn in the late 60's and early 70's and with the exception of characters like Georgette and Alberta and Goldie all of the characters are REAL to me. He ruined a perfectly good book with his sexual obesessions. I wish he had written more about a greater cross-section of characters. This could have been a GREAT book, and alas, is only mildly interesting.
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Summary: A Scatterbrain of a Novel yet an Interesting Read
Review: Hubert Selby's novel Last Exit To Brooklyn is a harrowing and a sprawling portrait of underachievers in Brooklyn. A lot of it has to do with homosexuality, drag queens, drugs, financial and relationship problems, and living in bad neighborhoods. It was hard to read, due to lack of punctuation, and Selby's scatterbrain style of writing (he himself said in an interview that he had some sort of mental problem, so I can see that), but overall it was a good book and if you're willing to take an adventure into the underworld of Brooklyn and disillusionment, read this book.
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Summary: A powerful, still relevant, classic.
Review: Hubert Selby, Jr. delivered the goods when he wrote this book. Unflinchingly honest, at times extremely brutal, Last Exit To Brooklyn gives the reader the literary equivalent of a hand grenade with the pin missing. Selby does not give readers of the book an easy time, as he brilliantly details the nonsensical minutiae, the surges of emotion and the sometimes inane nature of humanity that reside within the characters of the book, and, more importantly, within ourselves. What I'm saying is this: READ THIS BOOK
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Summary: What a book!!
Review: I am a senior in high school, but I first read this book as a sophmore. It was mentioned as greatly influential to Henry Rollins in one of his interviews. So, I decided to give Selby a shot. He didn't shock me or disgust me (I guess that says something for my cynical generation) but, he has talent and he write a good book. I have only read a few that I have thoroughly enjoyed more that Last Exit. What am I saying... this guy is amazing... just get this book!
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Summary: The hidden 50s
Review: I don't know whether it was deliberate or not, but Hubert Selby, Jr.'s LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN is a window into the hidden side of America's supposed banner years during the Eisenhower administration. Movies and television of this period depicted squeaky clean families in their squeaky clean houses (with the notable exception of I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners whose families lived in apartments). In this Father Knows Best world, no one worried about poverty, minorities, or women's rights, and the only evil was on the other side of the hemisphere in the USSR.And then there's the world of LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN. This is the underclass of citizens that the nation preferred to ignore: pimps, hookers, thieves, junkies, drag queens, wife-beaters, and the thousands upon thousands of working class stiffs at the mercy of their union officials or their bosses, neither of which seem to have their best interests in mind. But this is no 'pity the poor' sort of the book, no HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES (although I do wonder what kind of effect this book had upon its release). These characters, and they are fascinating, are not sentimentalized. Selby portrays most of them as brutal, unsympathetic, and as cruel to their own kind as anyone else. Even the drag queens, whom you would think would be a little understanding of each other, turn vicious at their best friends over the slightest insult. While very uneven in terms of pacing and tone, this is still a ferocious book which deserves reading. Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points.
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Summary: I felt like it was trying too hard
Review: I emphatically believe in the reading and writing of honest truth. As a reader, I much prefer the harsh, brutal and basic version of a story rather than it's rose-colored fantasy. 'Last Exit' Certainly belongs in that category; But, there is a fine line between the telling of the truth and the exploitation of it, and in his first novel, Selby crosses that line. The book is a collection of short stories about a variety of people coexisting in the ghettos of Brooklyn post WWII. Homosexuals, Drug users, drag queens, a gang of thugs that steal, beat, rape and murder, child molesting union officers, Nazi-like tenants, baby killers, rednecks and white trash; this book has it all. I liked the fact that it was realistic and gave you a perspective from very different parts of this sub-culture. The author did an excellent job of conveying the energy and anger that everyone who lived in these projects must have felt on a daily basis. I think that JR. Selby shows the potential for becoming an excellent writer on society as it exists, but I don't think he has perfected the craft in his first novel. Controversial subjects and explicit details were rehashed and drawn out simply for shock value, which is where this novel falls short. 'Last Exit' was so constantly sadistic that it became a little boring, I felt like he was trying to hard to disgust his readers and show people that he had the guts to write this way, and not enough time perfecting his talent as a writer. Although I wouldn't put this on my list of favorites, I still look forward to reading other works by Selby.
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Summary: Selby's first and probably the best place to start with him.
Review: I first read LAST EXIT when I was in junior high school, having discovered it mixed in with a cache of other books in my mother's library. I read it twice in a week, then a few more times, more slowly, over the following months. Selby crashed into my life like a meteor smacking into the earth -- literally, like someone from another world, which was what he was reporting to me. He wrote about the life in the city around him, which ruined many and forced some to ruin others, and starved people for love and made them turn to hateful substitutes. He also wrote unflinchingly about sexual agony, something I hadn't seen addressed honestly in any fiction at all until I'd read him. He also wrote with great empathy; he didn't hate any of his characters, even the vilest ones, but wanted to give them all a clear moment in the sun for us to see. I've gone on to recommend this book to others that I know will be moved and stunned by it, and they've in turn done the same to others they know. A lot of people will reflexively dismiss the book as disgusting or depressing, but I'll say this: what's more depressing? Reading an honest depiction of the worst and the best in us, or reading something that chooses to ignore the whole question in the first place? Selby will be remembered and loved for a long time after the louder, shallower, more immediate authors of our age are left to rot.
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Summary: I Guess I missed Something
Review: I have read many books, some the best or most thought provoking ever to be put to paper. Others were found to be the worst waste of tree bark that one could imagine. But in all the books I have read, never have I questioned ones reason for being. I am a firm believer of the need of books that awake ones mind to the less then perfect American picture of life. I had never read or heard of Mr. Selby before this book. His constant pounding on the Homosexual theme I found tiresome. I thought he had something in his story called, "Strike", but found it also dragged down into the mire of dogma.
Even in the darkest of stories taken from life there is some hope. Selby writes one of the most brutal, hateful novels I have ever read. I may not agree with a homosexual lifestyle, but I have found them to be people who live, their lives in the dignity of their choice.
If this book was meant to do anything but degrade them I guess I missed it.
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Summary: It Will Make Your Head Explode
Review: I heard about this book from a small obit in "The New York Times". I bought it ASAP from the glowing reviews I had read about it, and at first I thought I had made a mistake, because I could barely stand to read it and it seemed kind of boring. PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU ARE READING THIS BOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME, SKIP DIRECTLY TO "STRIKE" AND START READING FROM THERE. Otherwise you might put the book down out of sheer frustration and confusion and miss out on an amazing literary experience.
My first impression was wrong -- the book is far from boring. It is actually one of the best books ever written. However, I think Selby was just getting warmed up until he wrote "Strike", which will slam into the middle of your head like a fast-moving train. The first few stories didn't do much for me, which is why I suggest skipping them and reading them AFTER you have read "Strike".
Just think of the first few stories as being the same as the first few minutes of David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" when you first saw it. You can't really appreciate these first few stories until after the fact, much like you can't really enjoy the first few minutes of "Lawrence" until after you've seen the whole movie.
This is not an expensive book, and you'll do nothing but gain from buying it. Read it -- you'll be a better person for it! You honestly won't believe how well this guy could write!
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Summary: Raw and True to Life!
Review: I lived not far from where much of the action of this novel took place. And have had first hand experience of the kind of characters that are found here in this remarkable piece of writing. (One of the characters was based upon my landlord at the time). I was born and raised in Brooklyn and can personally testify that what you will read in these pages are as true to life back then as you'll find in any piece of American literature. Herbert Selby Jr. has given us a savage glimpse into a world possessed by demons in human form. It is at times raw and heartless, but it is as I've already stated true to life. A must read for anyone who wants to know what the world looked like back then through the eyes of this great writer!
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