What do you think?
Rate this book
The Willow Tree
Hubert Selby is probably one of the six best novelists writing in the English language.? Financial Times
Bobby is young and black. He shares a cramped apartment in the south Bronx with his mother, his younger siblings and the ceaselessly scratching rats that infest the walls behind his bed. Barely a teenager, he is old beyond his years. The best thing in Bobby's life is Maria, his Hispanic girlfriend. They are in love, and they have big plans for the summer ahead.
Their lives are irrevocably shattered when a vicious Hispanic street gang attack the couple as they walk to school. With Bobby savagely beaten and Maria lying in hospital, terrified and engulfed by the pain of her badly burned face, The Willow Tree takes the reader on on a volcanically powerful trip through the lives of America's dispossessed inner-city dwellers.
Into this bleak and smouldering hinterland, however, Selby introduces a small but vital note of love and compassion. When Bobby's bruised and bloodied body is discovered by Moishe, an aged concentration camp survivor, an unlikely friendship begins. As Moishe slowly, painfully, reveals his own tragic story, Bobby struggles angrily with his desperate need for revenge.
"Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists ... to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America."? The New York Times Book Review
Also by Hubert Selby Jr available from Marion Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream and Song of the Silent Snow .
Bobby is young and black. He shares a cramped apartment in the south Bronx with his mother, his younger siblings and the ceaselessly scratching rats that infest the walls behind his bed. Barely a teenager, he is old beyond his years. The best thing in Bobby's life is Maria, his Hispanic girlfriend. They are in love, and they have big plans for the summer ahead.
Their lives are irrevocably shattered when a vicious Hispanic street gang attack the couple as they walk to school. With Bobby savagely beaten and Maria lying in hospital, terrified and engulfed by the pain of her badly burned face, The Willow Tree takes the reader on on a volcanically powerful trip through the lives of America's dispossessed inner-city dwellers.
Into this bleak and smouldering hinterland, however, Selby introduces a small but vital note of love and compassion. When Bobby's bruised and bloodied body is discovered by Moishe, an aged concentration camp survivor, an unlikely friendship begins. As Moishe slowly, painfully, reveals his own tragic story, Bobby struggles angrily with his desperate need for revenge.
"Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists ... to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America."? The New York Times Book Review
Also by Hubert Selby Jr available from Marion Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream and Song of the Silent Snow .
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
43 people are currently reading
1317 people want to read
About the author
Hubert Selby Jr.
36 books2,405 followersHubert Selby, Jr. was born in Brooklyn and went to sea as a merchant marine while still in his teens. Laid low by lung disease, he was, after a decade of hospitalizations, written off as a goner and sent home to die. Deciding instead to live, but having no way to make a living, he came to a realization that would change the course of literature: "I knew the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer." Drawing from the soul of his Brooklyn neighborhood, he began writing something called "The Queen Is Dead," which evolved, after six years, into his first novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964), a book that Allen Ginsberg predicted would "explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years."
Selby's second novel, The Room (1971), considered by some to be his masterpiece, received, as Selby said, "the greatest reviews I've ever read in my life," then rapidly vanished leaving barely a trace of its existence. Over the years, however, especially in Europe, The Room has come to be recognized as what Selby himself perceives it to be: the most disturbing book ever written, a book that he himself was unable to read again for twenty years after writing it.
"A man obsessed / is a man possessed / by a demon." Thus the defining epigraph of The Demon (1976), a novel that, like The Room, has been better understood and more widely embraced abroad than at home.
If The Room is Selby's own favorite among his books, Requiem for a Dream (1978) contains his favorite opening line: "Harry locked his mother in the closet." It is perhaps the truest and most horrific tale of heroin addiction ever written.
Song of the Silent Snow (1986) brought together fifteen stories whose writing spanned more than twenty years.
Selby continued to write short fiction, screenplays and teleplays at his apartment in West Hollywood. His work appeared in many journals, including Yugen, Black Mountain Review, Evergreen Review, Provincetown Review, Kulchur, New Directions Annual, Swank and Open City. For the last 20 years of his life, Selby taught creative writing as an adjunct professor in the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California. Selby often wryly noted that The New York Times would not review his books when they were published, but he predicted that they'd print his obituary.
The movie Last Exit to Brooklyn, Directed by Uli Edel, was made in 1989 and his 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream was made into a film that was released in 2000. Selby himself had a small role as a prison guard.
In the 1980s, Selby made the acquaintance of rock singer Henry Rollins, who had long admired Selby's works and publicly championed them. Rollins not only helped broaden Selby's readership, but also arranged recording sessions and reading tours for Selby. Rollins issued original recordings through his own 2.13.61 publications, and distributed Selby's other works.
During the last years of his life, Selby suffered from depression and fits of rage, but was always a caring father and grandfather. The last month of his life Selby spent in and out of the hospital. He died in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California of chronic obstructive pulmonary lung disease. Selby was survived by his wife of 35 years, Suzanne; four children and 11 grandchildren.
Selby's second novel, The Room (1971), considered by some to be his masterpiece, received, as Selby said, "the greatest reviews I've ever read in my life," then rapidly vanished leaving barely a trace of its existence. Over the years, however, especially in Europe, The Room has come to be recognized as what Selby himself perceives it to be: the most disturbing book ever written, a book that he himself was unable to read again for twenty years after writing it.
"A man obsessed / is a man possessed / by a demon." Thus the defining epigraph of The Demon (1976), a novel that, like The Room, has been better understood and more widely embraced abroad than at home.
If The Room is Selby's own favorite among his books, Requiem for a Dream (1978) contains his favorite opening line: "Harry locked his mother in the closet." It is perhaps the truest and most horrific tale of heroin addiction ever written.
Song of the Silent Snow (1986) brought together fifteen stories whose writing spanned more than twenty years.
Selby continued to write short fiction, screenplays and teleplays at his apartment in West Hollywood. His work appeared in many journals, including Yugen, Black Mountain Review, Evergreen Review, Provincetown Review, Kulchur, New Directions Annual, Swank and Open City. For the last 20 years of his life, Selby taught creative writing as an adjunct professor in the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California. Selby often wryly noted that The New York Times would not review his books when they were published, but he predicted that they'd print his obituary.
The movie Last Exit to Brooklyn, Directed by Uli Edel, was made in 1989 and his 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream was made into a film that was released in 2000. Selby himself had a small role as a prison guard.
In the 1980s, Selby made the acquaintance of rock singer Henry Rollins, who had long admired Selby's works and publicly championed them. Rollins not only helped broaden Selby's readership, but also arranged recording sessions and reading tours for Selby. Rollins issued original recordings through his own 2.13.61 publications, and distributed Selby's other works.
During the last years of his life, Selby suffered from depression and fits of rage, but was always a caring father and grandfather. The last month of his life Selby spent in and out of the hospital. He died in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California of chronic obstructive pulmonary lung disease. Selby was survived by his wife of 35 years, Suzanne; four children and 11 grandchildren.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
February 20, 2013
To say HSJ mellowed in his old age is like saying Saddam Hussein became a tad less fond of fascism in his pre-hanging weeks. To mention Hussein in the same breath as Selby is heretical—one was a passionate moralist and Christian so devoted to his craft he fell into depressions and addictions and took up to a decade between works, the other is Hubert Selby Jr. (See what MJ did there? Priceless moments). The Willow Tree is a beautiful novel that uses an unapologetic sentimental tone, far closer to the Victorian double-Ds (Dickens and Dostoevsky) than anything written in 1998. Readers of earlier Selby novels will be pleased to note that the suffering and torment in this one starts on page one and ceases to relent until the final page, with the characters’ hysterical responses (fair responses, under the circumstances) cranked to what seems like the highest notch. Unlike in certain Dostoevsky novels, the weeping and lamenting isn’t unintentionally comic, but helps to create the epic push-and-pull of Love and Hate at the centre of the novel. This is a book about murderous burning hatred. About learning to forgive and love those who murder our families. A relationship forms between a Holocaust survivor living in a strange subterranean bachelor pad and a thirteen-year-old Bronx kid out to kill the gang who threw acid in his girlfriend’s face and drove her to suicide. That sort of thing. The tenderness that forms between the two in the midst of this seething pulsing hatred is at times devastating and makes the novel a success. Except Selby exaggerates their friendship (spontaneous laughter almost the moment the two meet), and uses clumsy German speech tics like ‘ya’ throughout, spoiling the integrity of this character somewhat. Also, at this point in his career the run-on sentence seems like a default stylistic tic, and loses the urgency it had in earlier novels. But who cares? This man is the Duke of Devastation.
July 20, 2021
Not Selby's best, but still pretty good. There's a lot working against it; corny setup (a black teenager who's been a victim of a racial attack befriending a Holocaust survivor), somewhat trite morality (revenge is useless and hate is corrosive to ones mind), and padding (you could probably lose 20-30 pages without losing too much). However, Selby's prose is so good and his imagery so vivid that the book is still affective and engaging.
April 28, 2017
"his body so rigid it looked like it was threatening to snap clutching at air, trying to find something to squeeze, to choke, to wrap around and brutally strangle the life form, feeling himself gloat and salivate his spittle dripping into the bulging eyes of Klaus as he squeezed a little tighter, wanting Klaus to live as long as possible"
The anger of Selby has always been that of mine, he has just better words to describe it, he has the ultimate way with words, wasnt he the one who said he knew the alphabet maybe he could write. How sad now that Im done with everything hes published and Im destined to be floating in a void without his anger to guide my taste in books, Ill surely, most definitely, end up reading all kinds of crap just to fill the emptiness, I mean, that's what always happens.
"If theres god what kind of god???? What kind of god is allowing this...is taking from us our child? And then Im thinking god is allowing the camps hes allowing our son to die. Theres a difference????
The sun was almost completely set and the boats on the water had turned on their running lights and they were reflected in the water as were the lights from the buildings near the river. The sky was streaked with color that was disappearing into the dark blue that would soon be the evening sky."
Selby balances all the anger with the most beautiful descriptions of the most ordinary things but when you read his words its like now you see it for the first time, now you know what they mean when they admire the sunset, you thought you were always doing that but were not. You were just looking you werent taking it in.
"made every part of him pump with energy and hatred that cleared everything else from his mind and he felt like a fucking king, like no muthafucka nowhere could do him anything, like he was the most powerful dude in the whole world, and he continued to slap the shit outta the muthafucka and pound him with his fists and dangle him over the side of the building and watch him fall to the alley, over and over until he could no longer keep the image going and his body suddenly seemed to curl itself into a ball and he somehow drifted into darkness without images and he slept"
At the end I wasnt content, I wasnt satisfied, I thought I was unhappy about the ending but I know now Im more upset about having to let go of Selby and Im not ready, Im not strong enough. Feeling weak I also feel strong at the same time because Im taking all of Selbys words in, here is me taking all of the words he has to offer, selfish me I take all the words and I have to believe that in time its going to be okay. Its all going to be alright.
Right?
The anger of Selby has always been that of mine, he has just better words to describe it, he has the ultimate way with words, wasnt he the one who said he knew the alphabet maybe he could write. How sad now that Im done with everything hes published and Im destined to be floating in a void without his anger to guide my taste in books, Ill surely, most definitely, end up reading all kinds of crap just to fill the emptiness, I mean, that's what always happens.
"If theres god what kind of god???? What kind of god is allowing this...is taking from us our child? And then Im thinking god is allowing the camps hes allowing our son to die. Theres a difference????
The sun was almost completely set and the boats on the water had turned on their running lights and they were reflected in the water as were the lights from the buildings near the river. The sky was streaked with color that was disappearing into the dark blue that would soon be the evening sky."
Selby balances all the anger with the most beautiful descriptions of the most ordinary things but when you read his words its like now you see it for the first time, now you know what they mean when they admire the sunset, you thought you were always doing that but were not. You were just looking you werent taking it in.
"made every part of him pump with energy and hatred that cleared everything else from his mind and he felt like a fucking king, like no muthafucka nowhere could do him anything, like he was the most powerful dude in the whole world, and he continued to slap the shit outta the muthafucka and pound him with his fists and dangle him over the side of the building and watch him fall to the alley, over and over until he could no longer keep the image going and his body suddenly seemed to curl itself into a ball and he somehow drifted into darkness without images and he slept"
At the end I wasnt content, I wasnt satisfied, I thought I was unhappy about the ending but I know now Im more upset about having to let go of Selby and Im not ready, Im not strong enough. Feeling weak I also feel strong at the same time because Im taking all of Selbys words in, here is me taking all of the words he has to offer, selfish me I take all the words and I have to believe that in time its going to be okay. Its all going to be alright.
Right?
March 8, 2025
Surely Selby Jr. must be one of the best writers when it comes to the experiences of living in New York's ghettos. This novel is a full on assault; it's dark, it's chaotic, it paints a gritty and vivid picture of gang life and the violence that goes with it. It has characters that could have easily jumped straight out of other Selby Jr. Novels, and the writing was just so compelling throughout. One of his lesser novels maybe, but my god it packs a punch. Bobby and Maria, could still be described as kids, yet the harsh realities of their tough and bleak world, make then feel much more grown up that all the spoilt adults out there. And with the old holocaust survivor and sort of mentor to a vengeful Bobby, he certainly knows a thing or two about hate. Despite this being written in the late 90's, I couldn't help but think the New York depicted in Taxi Driver. "Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."
December 3, 2018
A callous attack sees a young girl and her boyfriend injured. In the immediate aftermath of the incident they are separated, neither knowing what has happened to the other. Further tragedy ensues when one of the pair dies, leaving the survivor hellbent on revenge. During their convalescence, they forge an unlikely friendship with an old man, who has extensive experience of hatred from his time incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp.
'The Willow Tree' is in essence a fable about hate and its ramifications. Themes include hope, forgiveness and love. This sentimental and at times harrowing work suffers from a dearth of characters. Another criticism is its storyline, which is predictable, implausible and increasingly ponderous.
The book appealed far less to this reader than Hubert Selby Jr.’s seminal work, the Transgressive classic Last Exit To Brooklyn.
'The Willow Tree' is in essence a fable about hate and its ramifications. Themes include hope, forgiveness and love. This sentimental and at times harrowing work suffers from a dearth of characters. Another criticism is its storyline, which is predictable, implausible and increasingly ponderous.
The book appealed far less to this reader than Hubert Selby Jr.’s seminal work, the Transgressive classic Last Exit To Brooklyn.
October 23, 2015
In the South Bronx, Bobby, a thirteen-year-old Black, and Maria, his Hispanic girlfriend, are attacked and savagely beaten. Bobby is taken in by Moishe (a.k.a. Werner Schultz), a concentration camp survivor, and nursed back to health. Bobby plots his revenge while Moishe tries to teach him that hate will destroy him as well as his victims.
The use of run-on sentences with little punctuation may require some adjustment at the beginning. It does not impede the reader’s understanding, but reading it reminded me of reading a student’s initial attempts with the interior monologue style before he/she is completely comfortable with it.
Bobby has a limited vocabulary, but that is not surprising in a young teen; the problem is the author’s limited vocabulary indicated in the exposition. For example, emotions are always “flowing”: “a sense of gratitude flowing through him”; “feeling the joy flowing through him”; “affection flowing between them”; “happiness flowing through mind and body”; “a sense of being lost flowing from him”; “hatred flowing through and from him”; “a sense of strength and softness flowing through him and around him”; “love and gratitude flowing through him”; “a sense of freedom from everything flowing through him”; “a warmth flowing through him”; “the comfort and peace gently flowing through him”; “love, compassion and empathy flowing from him.” And then there are the tears that are flowing so often!
Tiresome repetition is found in other descriptions as well. For instance, there are 357 references to eyes, and at least 120 of those mention eyes either opening or closing or blinking. One is to believe that the relationship between Bobby and Moishe gradually becomes closer, but their relationship is often reduced to their laughing together and eating ice cream together. Several dozen times it is mentioned that Moishe and Bobby start laughing uncontrollably. And how many times must the reader be told that the two enjoy chocolate sauce with their ice cream?
There is a definite lack of realism. Moishe lives in a subterranean apartment, which made me think of the late 1980’s television show Beauty and the Beast, except that Moishe’s sanctuary has all the amenities. Why a concentration camp survivor would choose to live in such an environment is never explained. And Moishe has no friends? Not once in the months Bobby spends with him does Moishe interact with anyone other than Bobby. He seems to have limitless funds even though his only job is repairing appliances. Why does an old man have a rowing machine that he himself never uses?
The theme of the book, that hatred destroys those who hate, is not one which people will find objectionable. What I did find objectionable is the development of this theme. The pace of the book is painfully slow. Actions are repeated over and over again: each day is spent with Bobby planning his revenge and working out to get fit; Moishe preparing food and the two talking, Moishe revealing something about his concentration camp experiences; Bobby taking a tour of his old neighbourhood while Moishe worries until he returns; the two sharing ice cream with chocolate sauce before going to bed. All this leads to a predictable ending.
This was a disappointing read. Except for the opening, it lacks a plot; because of the limited diction, it makes for a tiresome read; it lacks realism when it could offer gritty details about life in the South Bronx; several times it lapses into melodrama. Give me West Side Story which addresses some of the same issues more effectively.
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
The use of run-on sentences with little punctuation may require some adjustment at the beginning. It does not impede the reader’s understanding, but reading it reminded me of reading a student’s initial attempts with the interior monologue style before he/she is completely comfortable with it.
Bobby has a limited vocabulary, but that is not surprising in a young teen; the problem is the author’s limited vocabulary indicated in the exposition. For example, emotions are always “flowing”: “a sense of gratitude flowing through him”; “feeling the joy flowing through him”; “affection flowing between them”; “happiness flowing through mind and body”; “a sense of being lost flowing from him”; “hatred flowing through and from him”; “a sense of strength and softness flowing through him and around him”; “love and gratitude flowing through him”; “a sense of freedom from everything flowing through him”; “a warmth flowing through him”; “the comfort and peace gently flowing through him”; “love, compassion and empathy flowing from him.” And then there are the tears that are flowing so often!
Tiresome repetition is found in other descriptions as well. For instance, there are 357 references to eyes, and at least 120 of those mention eyes either opening or closing or blinking. One is to believe that the relationship between Bobby and Moishe gradually becomes closer, but their relationship is often reduced to their laughing together and eating ice cream together. Several dozen times it is mentioned that Moishe and Bobby start laughing uncontrollably. And how many times must the reader be told that the two enjoy chocolate sauce with their ice cream?
There is a definite lack of realism. Moishe lives in a subterranean apartment, which made me think of the late 1980’s television show Beauty and the Beast, except that Moishe’s sanctuary has all the amenities. Why a concentration camp survivor would choose to live in such an environment is never explained. And Moishe has no friends? Not once in the months Bobby spends with him does Moishe interact with anyone other than Bobby. He seems to have limitless funds even though his only job is repairing appliances. Why does an old man have a rowing machine that he himself never uses?
The theme of the book, that hatred destroys those who hate, is not one which people will find objectionable. What I did find objectionable is the development of this theme. The pace of the book is painfully slow. Actions are repeated over and over again: each day is spent with Bobby planning his revenge and working out to get fit; Moishe preparing food and the two talking, Moishe revealing something about his concentration camp experiences; Bobby taking a tour of his old neighbourhood while Moishe worries until he returns; the two sharing ice cream with chocolate sauce before going to bed. All this leads to a predictable ending.
This was a disappointing read. Except for the opening, it lacks a plot; because of the limited diction, it makes for a tiresome read; it lacks realism when it could offer gritty details about life in the South Bronx; several times it lapses into melodrama. Give me West Side Story which addresses some of the same issues more effectively.
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
February 21, 2015
Redelijk briljant boek. De manier waarop de auteur hier met taal speelt, is fantastisch. Hij geeft elk personage zijn eigen stem, door het gebruik van verschillende dialecten, slang, cultureel-etnische scheldwoorden. Je hoort een moeder smeken voor het leven van haar kind, een jongen zweren dat hij wraak zal nemen op zijn vijanden, en een oude man stilletjes hopen dat hij gewoon gelukkig mag zijn.
Moishe is een memorabel personage, en voor mij de verpersoonlijking van het simpelweg mens-zijn. Als het leven je al zo veel slaag heeft gegeven, ligt het ultieme gelukkig zijn in kleine dingen. Gewoon onder een wilg zitten in Prospect Park bijvoorbeeld... Ik ben het met hem eens.
"I sit, I read, I listen to music, I go or a walk, I ride to Prospect Park and sit under the Willow Tree, I remember, I forget, I look at pictures, I do, I do, I do... or I don't, but its peaceful... only me... no worries."
Moishe is een memorabel personage, en voor mij de verpersoonlijking van het simpelweg mens-zijn. Als het leven je al zo veel slaag heeft gegeven, ligt het ultieme gelukkig zijn in kleine dingen. Gewoon onder een wilg zitten in Prospect Park bijvoorbeeld... Ik ben het met hem eens.
"I sit, I read, I listen to music, I go or a walk, I ride to Prospect Park and sit under the Willow Tree, I remember, I forget, I look at pictures, I do, I do, I do... or I don't, but its peaceful... only me... no worries."
August 26, 2017
When you’re raised in your typical middle-class home by typical middle-class parents, reading about Selby’s two main characters, a Black teen named Bobby and a holocaust survivor named Moishe, you suddenly find yourself in the unknown and frightening ghetto world of rats in the walls, racism, violence, drugs, gang wars, and self-loathing—and it’s an immediate shock to the system, mentally and physically.
And, Selby knows precisely how to create that environment. And, he knows how to make us believe there is hope in despair, even though that despair smacks you, unapologetically, in the face on page one.
I won’t whitewash this…the book is tough to read, emotionally, and at the same time, I found myself pausing whatever I was doing for an hour or more to pick the novel up and continue reading.
I’ve noticed some reviews mark this as a boring read, but I didn’t find this book’s warning against the hatred and the lust for revenge Selby provides is boring at all.
And, Selby knows precisely how to create that environment. And, he knows how to make us believe there is hope in despair, even though that despair smacks you, unapologetically, in the face on page one.
I won’t whitewash this…the book is tough to read, emotionally, and at the same time, I found myself pausing whatever I was doing for an hour or more to pick the novel up and continue reading.
I’ve noticed some reviews mark this as a boring read, but I didn’t find this book’s warning against the hatred and the lust for revenge Selby provides is boring at all.
August 17, 2016
Fantastic, especially off the back of Last Exit To Brooklyn. I've rarely seen any piece of writing capture a sense of frustration, the desire for revenge & the depth of grief as well as The Willow Tree. But I absolutely love how Selby Jr allows the characters, who have suffered so much in different ways, indulge and enjoy moments of joy. I felt such a strong sense of empathy for the characters, their feelings, their lives. It takes a little while to get into, but a very rewarding read.
February 16, 2008
If you're already familiar with Hubert Selby, this book doesn't really stray from his formula. The book starts getting disturbing and depressing around page 4, and only goes downhill from there. But don't let that dissuade you from reading. Selby was one of the few true geniuses of American literature, and this book only helps to cement that reputation.
September 2, 2016
Twenty years after his previous novel, Hubert Selby Jr. has returned in full form and with full effect. This is a story I will personally never forget. Here lies a heart submerged in darkness, but one that yearns for redemption. Terrifying. Truthful. This may just be a masterpiece.
Read
September 10, 2010If you'd like to know what I thought of this book, please contact me directly and I'd be happy to discuss it with you.
All the best,
- TB
All the best,
- TB
November 14, 2022
It's been a good 6 or 7 years since I read this, but the ending always stuck with me. It really keeps you guessing and holds the tension right to the end. The theme of revenge and how the desire for it can consume your sould are well-explored in literature, but nontheless powerfuly dealt with. Perhaps the most underrated work of a highly underrated writer. Deserves his place alongside Bukowski, Fante and the rest.
April 26, 2025
just a magnificent book, that to me shows the possibility of creating relationship bonds in most unusual circumstances, and beyond races and generational gap. Gripping, tense and beautiful.
October 8, 2020
The Willow Tree by Hubert Selby Jr. is another novel in about the life outside of society that few people really experience. Selby was born in New York in 1928. A high school dropout who joined the Merchant Marines and came down with tuberculosis. Experimental surgery saved his life but also got hooked on pain killers and heroin. Bed ridden for the next ten years, he developed his own writing style.
The Willow Tree, like most of Selby's work, is deep, deep underground life. Life is bleak and then it gets bleaker and never stops its downward spiral. Hope, doesn't exist in the inner city: Drugs violence, racial hatred, and the realization that that is all there is. His work reflects the darkness he experienced his whole life. The rare instances where there is beauty,“Then starting the descent through the cool refreshing air, feeling an exquisite ecstasy as she floated free of the flames & ugliness...” come at a great price.
Selby developed his own writing style. At the first look, you might think that there is a error in the ebook format or on the press. Paragraphs end, sometimes randomly, sometimes in mid sentence. The next paragraph starts without a tab indention or maybe three tab indention or right on the right margin. Conversations are written as they are spoken and spelled in the same manner. Quotation marks and even a references as to whose turn it is speaking are nonexistent. “Didn't” was typed as “didn/t” because the the “/” key was easier to reach. Periodically, he typed words in all capital letters too. All this might seem a bit annoying to the reader, but it all seems to fall in place and work well. His style seems to add to the story.
Selby sets the tone of the book in the opening sentence: “Bobby lay in bed listening to the rats scratching and squealing in the wall a few inches behind his head, the rats sounding as if they were ready to gnaw through his skull and chew on his eyeballs from the inside.” Bobby, just a kid, is looking forward to summer, getting a job, earning some money, and spending it with Maria. Classic Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story comes into play. Bobby is black and Maria is Puerto Rician and although they are in love others see a problem. Bobby and Maria are attacked by a group of young Puerto Ricians. Bobby barely crawls away and Maria ends up with a face full of lye. Maria ends up at the hospital and even there she is view by some of the staff as either a prostitute or a drug user, that working people will have to pay for her care. Bobby, is saved by an old man name Moishie. Bobby filled with hate and learns from the old man with a numbered tattoo on his wrist about hate and life...and the story begins.
Selby combines an unique literary style, a coherent Burroughs maybe, and a gritty, tough, New York City story. As dark as his writing can be it is also compelling and hard to put down. The characters are mature and at times it is hard to believe they are in their early teens. The Willow Tree is a powerful and moving book that is sure to stay with you for a long time. Unfortunately, the world lost Selby almost ten years ago and no one has been able to step up and take his place.
The Willow Tree, like most of Selby's work, is deep, deep underground life. Life is bleak and then it gets bleaker and never stops its downward spiral. Hope, doesn't exist in the inner city: Drugs violence, racial hatred, and the realization that that is all there is. His work reflects the darkness he experienced his whole life. The rare instances where there is beauty,“Then starting the descent through the cool refreshing air, feeling an exquisite ecstasy as she floated free of the flames & ugliness...” come at a great price.
Selby developed his own writing style. At the first look, you might think that there is a error in the ebook format or on the press. Paragraphs end, sometimes randomly, sometimes in mid sentence. The next paragraph starts without a tab indention or maybe three tab indention or right on the right margin. Conversations are written as they are spoken and spelled in the same manner. Quotation marks and even a references as to whose turn it is speaking are nonexistent. “Didn't” was typed as “didn/t” because the the “/” key was easier to reach. Periodically, he typed words in all capital letters too. All this might seem a bit annoying to the reader, but it all seems to fall in place and work well. His style seems to add to the story.
Selby sets the tone of the book in the opening sentence: “Bobby lay in bed listening to the rats scratching and squealing in the wall a few inches behind his head, the rats sounding as if they were ready to gnaw through his skull and chew on his eyeballs from the inside.” Bobby, just a kid, is looking forward to summer, getting a job, earning some money, and spending it with Maria. Classic Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story comes into play. Bobby is black and Maria is Puerto Rician and although they are in love others see a problem. Bobby and Maria are attacked by a group of young Puerto Ricians. Bobby barely crawls away and Maria ends up with a face full of lye. Maria ends up at the hospital and even there she is view by some of the staff as either a prostitute or a drug user, that working people will have to pay for her care. Bobby, is saved by an old man name Moishie. Bobby filled with hate and learns from the old man with a numbered tattoo on his wrist about hate and life...and the story begins.
Selby combines an unique literary style, a coherent Burroughs maybe, and a gritty, tough, New York City story. As dark as his writing can be it is also compelling and hard to put down. The characters are mature and at times it is hard to believe they are in their early teens. The Willow Tree is a powerful and moving book that is sure to stay with you for a long time. Unfortunately, the world lost Selby almost ten years ago and no one has been able to step up and take his place.
January 28, 2014
First of all, many thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media who gave me the opportunity to read this novel recently. To be perfectly honest, when I first started it, I wasn't sure if I was going to continue but I was determined to give it a fair shot, and I'm really glad I did, as by about 40 percent through (kindle-speak), I was quite hooked and intrigued to know how the story would continue. In a nutshell, this is a contemporary work of fiction about a young black boy called Bobby who lives quite an impoverished life in the Bronx, sharing an apartment with his many younger siblings, his mother, (no sign of a father figure anywhere), and some rats, who used to terrify him when he was younger but sadly as he has got used to them, they have become part of the furniture. There is a ray of light in Bobby's life however, his Hispanic girlfriend Maria whom he adores, until one dreadful day, when a gang of Hispanic boys don't take too kindly to the fact that someone of their race is with a black boyfriend, and beat Bobby to a pulp, while others throw acid into the face of his girlfriend, burning and disfiguring her permanently.
Bobby's battered body is found by an old gentleman called Moishe, who is a concentration camp survivor, and takes Bobby back to his apartment, nursing him back to health. As Bobby slowly recovers under the kindness of Moishe, he is told the extent of what has happened to Maria (and it's worse than you think) and becomes hell-bent on revenge. Moishe desperately wants to help Bobby, and dissuade him from retaliating with violence so tells him his own sad story, which is horrific, but shows a different way of dealing with pent-up emotions when they threaten to overwhelm you.
This is the first book that I've read by Hubert Selby Jr. although I'm familiar with his other works, Requiem For A Dream and Last Exit To Brooklyn. As I mentioned before, I really wasn't sure about the style of writing at the start of this book, but somehow the author managed to win me over! There are no speech marks used, so the whole thing reads almost like a stream of consciousness, which I didn't like at the start, but gradually got used to. I think the author evokes the setting and the voices of the characters beautifully, and I did find myself eager to know how the story would end. He paints quite a bleak view of life in general, and the utter hopelessness and futility of day to day living, scratching out an existence, paralleling with the author's own early life experiences. It's dark, it's dramatic, and I will definitely be picking up another book by Hubert Selby Jr. Just be prepared, it's not an easy ride!
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.com
Bobby's battered body is found by an old gentleman called Moishe, who is a concentration camp survivor, and takes Bobby back to his apartment, nursing him back to health. As Bobby slowly recovers under the kindness of Moishe, he is told the extent of what has happened to Maria (and it's worse than you think) and becomes hell-bent on revenge. Moishe desperately wants to help Bobby, and dissuade him from retaliating with violence so tells him his own sad story, which is horrific, but shows a different way of dealing with pent-up emotions when they threaten to overwhelm you.
This is the first book that I've read by Hubert Selby Jr. although I'm familiar with his other works, Requiem For A Dream and Last Exit To Brooklyn. As I mentioned before, I really wasn't sure about the style of writing at the start of this book, but somehow the author managed to win me over! There are no speech marks used, so the whole thing reads almost like a stream of consciousness, which I didn't like at the start, but gradually got used to. I think the author evokes the setting and the voices of the characters beautifully, and I did find myself eager to know how the story would end. He paints quite a bleak view of life in general, and the utter hopelessness and futility of day to day living, scratching out an existence, paralleling with the author's own early life experiences. It's dark, it's dramatic, and I will definitely be picking up another book by Hubert Selby Jr. Just be prepared, it's not an easy ride!
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.com
January 17, 2015
Classic Selby. Within the first 10 pages, a Puerto Rican chain gang beats up Bobby, a poor kid from the Bronx, and throws lye in his girlfriend's face. Bobby stumbles into a decaying warehouse in the deserted sections of the Bronx, where he meets Moishe, a Holocaust survivor. Moishe has been living on his own for the last several years, haunted by demons of his past. When Bobby suddenly stumbles into his life, he begins treating him as the child he never had. He nurses Bobby back to health, doctoring his wounds and showing him how to work out to be strong again. Bobby, to Moishe's chagrin, is consumed by hatred for the gang and spends most of his time plotting revenge against them. When Bobby's girlfriend commits suicide, he can think of nothing else but "how he be killin' that fuckin' spic that threw acid in the face of his sweet sweet Maria."
The book is an interesting take on gang dynamics and life in the ghetto. Bobby repeatedly muses on how he's never been out of the few blocks of his 'hood, and how disoriented he feels when he's no longer walking on his turf. It paints a poignant picture of despair and resignation to social immobility. It's clear that all of the characters from the 'hood feel that they will be stuck there for their entire life.
I will say this, though: it's the only Selby book I've read that actually has a happy ending.
The book is an interesting take on gang dynamics and life in the ghetto. Bobby repeatedly muses on how he's never been out of the few blocks of his 'hood, and how disoriented he feels when he's no longer walking on his turf. It paints a poignant picture of despair and resignation to social immobility. It's clear that all of the characters from the 'hood feel that they will be stuck there for their entire life.
I will say this, though: it's the only Selby book I've read that actually has a happy ending.
November 30, 2008
Selby uses no " and / instead of regular apostrophes (and sometimes no marks at all!) and the shape of his paragraphs are personalized unlike the usual. This is a strange book about an old non-Jewish German former concentration camp inmate who befriends a young black kid whose girlfriend was murdered by a Puerto Rican gang. The old man teaches the kid not to hate like he learned in the camp and they eat lots of ice cream with chocolate sauce as the kid plots his revenge and carries it out piecemeal before his ultimate confrontation with the crisis of whether or not to kill the gang's leader. I can't remember if the short stories were rendered thusly--I don't think so--but I remember all the same funny tricks of presentation from a book I read by Selby years ago (Last Exit to Brooklyn)--I wonder if he thinks he's really figured out a better way to present language somehow, and just stuck with it all these years. Either that or he made a big deal about his special new way long ago in public once back in the day and would've looked foolish going back to the regular.
April 30, 2016
Hubert Selby chronicled what Maxim Gorky described as 'the lower depths' of American society. His masterpieces Requiem For A Dream & Last Exit To Brooklyn were bleak, but rewarding, reads. The Willow Tree inhabits similar territory but, this time, hope blossoms amid the despair. I grew up in a working class family but Selby's characters exist in what is, to me, an almost alien world of ghettos, rats, violence, welfare, racism, drugs & self-loathing. His books are powerful & confronting & certainly not for everyone. But the humanity Selby locates amidst the misery makes them worth the challenge. He is one of a kind, now relaxing in that Writer's Retreat in the sky.
March 3, 2013
The first half of The Willow Tree is as devastating as modern literature can get. Unlike Selby's other novels, however, the despair, pain and burning hate are progressively balanced by a sense of human fellowship and the possiblity of redemption. This is not a realistic tale, but a powerful parable of revenge and forgiveness that far transcends its immediate historical and geographical setting. Required reading for all who have been moved by such Selby classics as Last Exit to Brooklyn, Requiem for a Dream and The Demon.
October 4, 2013
I'm going to be honest, this was one of the hardest books I've read this year. Not just because of the subject matter (although it was in-your-face, unapologetically rough) but also because of the manner in which the book was written. The Willow Tree by Hubert Selby, Jr. is filled with run-on sentences, hard-to-understand dialect, racial slurs, derogatory remarks, and might possibly be one of the most honest, punch to the gut stories I've read this year.
Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Oct. 5, 2013.
Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Oct. 5, 2013.
September 19, 2020
Bellissimo libro di una poeticità e un intensità a volte struggente.
Selby, al suo solito effettua una vera e propria tac dell'emozioni e dei sentimenti quali amicizia, vendetta, riscatto, amore, perdono etc.
Un poeta romanziere che esplora i lati più oscuri degli esseri umani.
Bello. Un grande Autore.
Selby, al suo solito effettua una vera e propria tac dell'emozioni e dei sentimenti quali amicizia, vendetta, riscatto, amore, perdono etc.
Un poeta romanziere che esplora i lati più oscuri degli esseri umani.
Bello. Un grande Autore.
May 7, 2015
I feel like the book focused on letting you know hate festering in your heart will get you nowhere. I saw it as optimistic and it resonated well with me.. especially at this time in my life.
December 21, 2012
For me, Selby's best. Harrowing at times, the relationship between Bobby and Moishe touches the reader deep - human beings are not all bad.
January 6, 2025
Yes, I know. This bunker appartement with a jacuzzi, it is absolutely not realistic. But I couldn't care less. This book just hit me with full force, as I've never been struck before. It felt physical. Starting by the fact that it contains the most brutal scene I've ever read.
It's 2025 as I'm writing this review and I must have read this maybe 7 years ago. But I remember many scenes vividly. And most importantly, I remember all the emotions I went through while reading it. Although a tough read psychologically, there's something ethereal to this book and its writing, almost numbing. I saw another reviewer complain about the constant use of the word "flowing", but to me this word depicts exactly the feeling I got while reading it. To me, the recurrence of the word even echoes the recurrence of the routine that Moishe established with Bobby to try and cure him from his hatred.
I haven't read anything else by Selby, partly on purpose, as I don't think I would like his other novels.
Sometimes you find yourself reading a book and you know that it's just... different. There are most books you've read, they can be bad, they can be good, and then there is this other category of books. The ones that will stay with you. The ones for which the five-star system seems a little bit off-topic, because there is so much more to it than just a rating on a scale. The Willow Tree is one of those books to me. Just writing this review made me a little teary. Grateful to my Dad for recommending this to me!
It's 2025 as I'm writing this review and I must have read this maybe 7 years ago. But I remember many scenes vividly. And most importantly, I remember all the emotions I went through while reading it. Although a tough read psychologically, there's something ethereal to this book and its writing, almost numbing. I saw another reviewer complain about the constant use of the word "flowing", but to me this word depicts exactly the feeling I got while reading it. To me, the recurrence of the word even echoes the recurrence of the routine that Moishe established with Bobby to try and cure him from his hatred.
I haven't read anything else by Selby, partly on purpose, as I don't think I would like his other novels.
Sometimes you find yourself reading a book and you know that it's just... different. There are most books you've read, they can be bad, they can be good, and then there is this other category of books. The ones that will stay with you. The ones for which the five-star system seems a little bit off-topic, because there is so much more to it than just a rating on a scale. The Willow Tree is one of those books to me. Just writing this review made me a little teary. Grateful to my Dad for recommending this to me!
October 5, 2022
What a slog reading this was. While I love simple prose, the text and vocabulary are so simple to the point of tedium. Tears like crystals. Over and over. Two characters laughing until they cry for no reason. Over and over. Bare description, to the point where I sometimes wonder where we are and what things look like.
The plot starts great, with intense action, then immediately stalls. We stay stalled for ages. Finally, it picks up again. Events happen! Then we stall once more. Then it just sort of lumbers to an end.
This feels like a short story stretched against its will into novel length.
I can't recommend this book. I only read it because I have fond memories of reading Last Exit and Requiem. This book is fairly simple, linear, and (in places) quite dull.
The plot starts great, with intense action, then immediately stalls. We stay stalled for ages. Finally, it picks up again. Events happen! Then we stall once more. Then it just sort of lumbers to an end.
This feels like a short story stretched against its will into novel length.
I can't recommend this book. I only read it because I have fond memories of reading Last Exit and Requiem. This book is fairly simple, linear, and (in places) quite dull.
May 24, 2025
When you read a Selby story it is usually very dark, depressing, violent and somewhat hopeless for those involved in the story.
This has all of the above except... that Selby offers just a little bit of hope for the future in the character of Bobby... who is filled with hate due to an attack on him and his girlfriend and wants nothing more than to kill those that attacked them.
But through the character of Moishe and his experiences in the concentration camps... Bobby begins to change...as Moishe takes care of Bobby physically after his attack and allows him to stay with him in him till he heals.
Understand... this is a story of hate, violence and prejudice but it does offer some hope that things just might get better.
The parts where Moishe remembers his wife and son are priceless.
This has all of the above except... that Selby offers just a little bit of hope for the future in the character of Bobby... who is filled with hate due to an attack on him and his girlfriend and wants nothing more than to kill those that attacked them.
But through the character of Moishe and his experiences in the concentration camps... Bobby begins to change...as Moishe takes care of Bobby physically after his attack and allows him to stay with him in him till he heals.
Understand... this is a story of hate, violence and prejudice but it does offer some hope that things just might get better.
The parts where Moishe remembers his wife and son are priceless.
October 24, 2021
This may be my favorite book. Selby bucks his trend here in making the ending positive, but man is it his usual psychological slog on the way there.
I’ve found it best to read this book as a fairy tale with the moral of forgiveness, because if you keep revenge inwardly submerged and percolating, all that means is it will corrupt your heart first, and thus spread through your whole being.
If you really liked this book, I suggest checking out Selby’s short story Song of the Silent Snow in the collection of the same name!
Thank you Cubby, for all you wrote!
I’ve found it best to read this book as a fairy tale with the moral of forgiveness, because if you keep revenge inwardly submerged and percolating, all that means is it will corrupt your heart first, and thus spread through your whole being.
If you really liked this book, I suggest checking out Selby’s short story Song of the Silent Snow in the collection of the same name!
Thank you Cubby, for all you wrote!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2023
The first half of this book is some of Hubert Selby Junior’s best writing I’ve read so far.
Great characterisation and a very emotionally moving foundation! However at a certain point the story alters into a painfully dull revenge story that repeats itself every 10 pages.
Even amidst the blandness of that second half there are definitely showings of Hubert’s masterful talents as a writer, but it’s so inconsistent that I had to put this book down.
Great characterisation and a very emotionally moving foundation! However at a certain point the story alters into a painfully dull revenge story that repeats itself every 10 pages.
Even amidst the blandness of that second half there are definitely showings of Hubert’s masterful talents as a writer, but it’s so inconsistent that I had to put this book down.
August 10, 2023
Quite unlike anything I've read before, with no chapters and little punctuation. But this style has the effect of drawing you completely into the world's of the fully formed characters Selby has created.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews