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Requiem for a Dream
In Coney Island, Brooklyn, Sarah Goldfarb, a lonely widow, wants nothing more than to lose weight and appear on a television game show. She becomes addicted to diet pills in her obsessive quest, while her junkie son, Harry, along with his girlfriend, Marion, and his best friend, Tyrone, have devised an illicit shortcut to wealth and leisure by scoring a pound of uncut heroin. Entranced by the gleaming visions of their futures, these four convince themselves that unexpected setbacks are only temporary. Even as their lives slowly deteriorate around them, they cling to their delusions and become utterly consumed in the spiral of drugs and addiction, refusing to see that they have instead created their own worst nightmares."Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists. His work has the power, the intimacy with suffering and morality, the honesty and moral urgency of Doestoevsky's. To understand Selby's work is to understand the anguish of America." - The New York Times Book Review
279 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
2007 people are currently reading
137455 people want to read
About the author
Hubert Selby Jr.
40 books2,454 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.
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January 28, 2021
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 I've seen the movie, but it stuck with me. There are some images & feelings the movie evoked in me that just stay with me. When I hear the title, or even just the word "Requiem", or the Kronos Quartet music, these images and feelings surface. I don't recall every moment of the movie, but the amount that stuck with me was enough to make this reading experience like re-watching it. After I finished, I did re-watch, and though there are differences (some of them major), mostly the adaptation sits right in the book's lap. Page 1, reading Harry steal his mom's TV to pawn it for dope money, it was like watching the movie in my head.
This is a rare situation, though, because I'm comparing the book to the movie, rather than the reverse. I try to go out of my way to avoid seeing adaptations prior to reading the book (if I can), but I saw this first when I was 18 and didn't know it was a book until over a decade later. The only other time I've done this was with Children of Men, a movie I really liked & a book I fucking hated. Clearly I didn't hate this, though. In fact, I kind of loved it. The movie was pretty damn accurate to the book, but didn't quite have the same depth. The book did a better job at portraying the inner thoughts of the characters - especially with Sara.
The book spends a lot more time showing the slow descent into desperation for these addicts. The movie kind of seems like a long PSA/worst-case-scenario cautionary tale. "Do drugs and this is how you could end up!" And, while that's valid to an extent, (and could also be said about the book), I think the movie almost loses sight of the fact addiction is a disease, not just a result of an action. This is made much clearer in the book, in my opinion. The movie touches on it briefly - a little scene where Harry and Marion are talking about Sara's TV habit, for instance, but for the most part it just shows the most dramatic and horrifying aspects and kind of doesn't have time for the everyday problems of addiction.
Side note here: There's a lot of stereotyping in the book - the Jewish mother figure, her Yenta friends, the late-70s black character, the uber-racist South, etc. There's a lot of it, and it's extreme. But it's necessary, I think. This is not a subtle book. It's an intense in-your-face-with-a-2x4 kind of book, so I think that if the characters weren't also shown in extremes, it would have felt inconsistent to me. The movie does away with much of that, and I feel like it also takes away some, maybe a lot, of the impact.
The movie also glosses over some of the non-addiction-based ugliness shown in the book. Sara's care is a big, big, big one to me. In the book it's... horrifying. HORRIFYING. The movie portrays the care she receives at the end in a not-very-patient-friendly kind of way... but it's still care. The doctor tries various things, the orderlies are firm almost to the point of being rough - but you can see they are trying to help her even if it seems cruel. This is a sanitization of what's portrayed in the book. Sara, confused, lost in her own starvation- and drug-induced haze, is put into a horrific situation, where every act of trying to force food into her is like rape. There's not only a lack of care, but a lack of human decency, kindness, and empathy in general. It's frightening and terrifying to think that some bureaucratic pencil-pusher can strip someone of their basic human dignity simply to avoid authority conflicts.
Another example is how Tyrone is treated in the south. Some of the tone remains in the movie, but again it's a much milder version. In the book, Tyrone and Harry are hated universally once they step foot below the Mason/Dixon line. They are treated cruelly, as sub-human, because they are addicts. But Tyrone gets it worse, because he's black. They are arrested for vagrancy. FUCKING. VAGRANCY. OMG. I saw this and my stomach clenched. It makes me so angry and literally sickens me. Arrest them because they have fucking HEROIN in the car. Or because they are clearly intoxicated. Or for suspected car theft (because the car wasn't theirs), or for driving without a license (because they don't have one) or fucking any number of reasons that aren't the most fucked up and discriminatory one ever. Arrest them and follow due process, and I can understand. But this is horrific hatred that should have ended long before this book was set. But... of course, that's not how the world works, unfortunately.
The movie shows almost none of that racism based brutality. There's a general tone of suspicion and dislike, and a cruelty in general, but it is not overt in the movie, and it isn't even close to the book depiction. The movie doesn't say what they are arrested for, just that they were recognized as addicts and the police were called. I actually am disappointed that the overt racism was taken out of the movie. There's a scene in the book where they stop for gas, and the attendant won't serve them, lies about being out of gas, and that the bathroom is out of order, and spits on them... for nothing more than because Tyrone is black and Harry is a "n***** lover". Harry begins to argue, but Tyrone just gets back in the car to leave because he knows, even though he's never experienced THIS kind of racism before, just how ugly it can get. His treatment in jail in the book is fucking disgusting, and the movie completely avoids the topic - making it look like it's just a cruelty towards addicts, not that it's racism.
The exception to the movie 'softening' is Marion's situation. The book hints at the "play time" she participates in. "With other girls" and "she didn't know what she'd be doing" and "the smell on her lips and fingers" is pretty much all that we get in the book. But the movie goes very visual and very pull-no-punches there. I was kind of surprised by this, because I expected the book to be grittier and uglier in every way - including Marion's willingness to sell herself for her addiction. But the movie portrayed that very accurately, just elaborating on that one scene.
Other differences are more subtle. For instance, a lot of scenes where Harry & Tyrone struggled to find dope were left out of the movie. There's a tiny mention of it, where their dealer is killed out of nowhere, but that's not in the book. So the fear, anger, and need that's present is out of place because it's never really shown that there's just shortage, and EVERYONE has been desperate for months. This is the catalyst for the end of the book that spurs the decision to try to go to Florida and get weight for their dope-security, but it just feels shunted into the movie awkwardly.
Another subtle change is that Marion and Harry don’t have sex in the movie, though in the book they do many times. It's a kind of juxtaposition of how she feels when selling sex for her habit compared to how she feels having sex with Harry. The lack of sex in the movie, I think, is a nod to that relationship - that it's more than just physical, and that they really do love each other but the addiction, their elephant in the room, overwhelms that connection and makes them resent each other.
In the book, there's no closure or reconciliation, not even acceptance, as shown in the movie. Harry doesn't call Marion from jail, or even think about her. He only thinks about his arm and his pain. The further they get from NY, the further she is from his mind. His concern and focus gets smaller and smaller the further he and Tyrone drive, until it's centered on his infection to the exclusion of all else.
Harry and Tyrone’s relationship in the book starts to splinter as well. They hold back money and dope from each other, their addiction taking precedence over their friendship. At the end of the book, Tyrone is... almost de-humanized, in a way. Not only because of his withdrawal causing him to suffer, but also due to the treatment he experiences in the southern jail, all of which he blames Harry for. If he'd not suggested this trip, if he'd not kept shooting into his infected arm... if he'd done this or that differently, Tyrone wouldn't be in this situation. In the movie, that resentment doesn't exist - they are friends till the end (or, Tyrone is Harry's friend. Harry is sick.) Tyrone's need is present, and painful, but his friendship and concern for Harry's life trumps that. The book... not so much.
In both versions, poor Sara is alone with her own pain and needs and delusions. Her struggles are the most closely matched between the book and movie. She is the character that I feel the most for, who breaks my heart the most. The book really shows her loneliness and sadness a lot more than the movie, BUT Ellen Burstyn does a great job filling a lot of those gaps - the scene with Harry when he calls her out for being on pills is gut-wrenching. With four words, you can feel a decade's worth of sadness there. "I'm old. I'm alone." It gives me chills. Ellen Burstyn just brings her to life and makes her real and so sad.
Book Sara doesn't quite have that same power. By which I mean that I feel a huge amount of empathy for her character, and sadness and rage at how her life spirals out of control, all for want of being wanted and having nobody to speak on her behalf or help her. But it's more of a generalized "If this happened to anyone, I would feel this way" feeling, rather than identification with HER specifically.
Both versions have unresolved endings - but in the movie it's interesting to note that they throw a little symbolism in there. All four characters curl into a fetal position at the end, and both women are smiling. Two women who have fallen so far down that their only concern is their addiction. Sara's had a complete break from reality, hallucinating a happy TV reunion with Harry, and that's all she's really ever wanted anyway. Marion is just content that she's got a regular supply of dope, if she's willing to earn it. That’s security to her, and nothing else matters. Both men are crying, thinking about the dreams they've lost. Tyrone’s is to be safe and secure with a caring, supportive woman (his mother); and Harry’s thinking about how things have gone so bad with Marion.
There's really nothing to hope for with any of them. Harry has a habit of drowning his every feeling in heroin, and that won’t get easier after losing his arm, his friend, his girlfriend, and his mother. If he actually were to get treatment, he might make it - but where he is, I don't see anyone making an effort for him. Same with Tyrone, who has lost his friend, his freedom, his dignity, etc. With treatment, he might be OK, but if they just release him at the end of his sentence, he'd go right back to using. Marion, who has lost just about everything as well, her life now consists of selling sex to make a score to last her until the next one. Even if she were to have someone step in and try to help her, it wouldn't do any good. She's intelligent, manipulative, and she wants to feel good, not hurt mentally and physically. She doesn't have coping mechanisms, so I don't see her breaking the cycle either. Sara makes me the saddest, because Harry recognized what was happening, and could have stopped it if he tried, but instead he abandoned her because it was easier.
I want to talk about the writing style, and how I kept comparing it to the cinematography. I am impressed with how similar they feel. Darren Aronofsky truly captured the the feel.
But the writing style is messy. It worked because the BOOK is messy. It's spastic, urgent, shifting, and hazy, and it really FEELS that way. Run-on sentences abound (I think the longest I saw was 4 pages long), but they are put to good use. This was a scene where Harry is waiting for Marion to come home after he 'suggests' that Marion ask her shrink for money for dope. (In the book it's $300, not $2000. He sells her for so much less in the book. He goes along with her trips to Big Tim in the book too - that's not just a "Harry's gone, what do I do now??" desperation as it is in the movie.) He knows what's going, and he feels sick about it, but not enough to change or care. After all, she agreed to it - it's on her now too, right? After that he just distances himself from her scoring method – as long as they have a score at all. Anyway. These pages depict his feelings about what he's sent her out to do, why, how he's coping with it (or not), cycling through all of these emotions that he doesn't want to feel, but not wanting to get high because of their limited and insecure supply, but not able to stop... It's a perfect microcosm of his addiction in a long stream of consciousness that just works. It's not pretty - punctuation use is spotty at best, misspellings abound in a kind of patois that supports the stereotyping (ex: Christ is spelled 'krist'), capitalization is iffy, and it's just a mess of chaos... like the lives we're reading about. And it just worked for me.
This style really just dragged me along for the ride and I couldn’t look away. I read about 70% in one sitting yesterday. The way the dialogue was intermixed with the action, and I never knew really who was speaking, or whether it was thought, or hallucination, or dream, or reality only added to the texture. It almost didn't matter, because in the end, their dreams were their reality - more real to them than their reality was, anyway, and somehow the reader gets that.
I'm almost afraid to read Selby's other books now. I feel like writing styles like this should be used sparingly, consciously, and intentionally. They should be used to enhance and transform a particular story into an experience for the reader. This style, which I thought worked perfectly with this story, did that for me. So, if he just writes like this I'd be disappointed, because I'd feel like this wasn't an intentional choice.
I bring this up, because I felt like this after reading (and really enjoying) Saramago's Blindness. The style there worked beautifully with the story being told. But when I looked at other books, and it was the same style even though the stories were vastly different, it just feels gimmicky rather than a deliberate style choice made to fit the story.
Anyway, this book is brilliant and brutal. I loved it, but I don't know if I can recommend it. I love books that make me feel - and this one did, but it's not sunshine and rainbows that I felt, so I'd stay away from this one if that's what you're looking for.
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 I've seen the movie, but it stuck with me. There are some images & feelings the movie evoked in me that just stay with me. When I hear the title, or even just the word "Requiem", or the Kronos Quartet music, these images and feelings surface. I don't recall every moment of the movie, but the amount that stuck with me was enough to make this reading experience like re-watching it. After I finished, I did re-watch, and though there are differences (some of them major), mostly the adaptation sits right in the book's lap. Page 1, reading Harry steal his mom's TV to pawn it for dope money, it was like watching the movie in my head.
This is a rare situation, though, because I'm comparing the book to the movie, rather than the reverse. I try to go out of my way to avoid seeing adaptations prior to reading the book (if I can), but I saw this first when I was 18 and didn't know it was a book until over a decade later. The only other time I've done this was with Children of Men, a movie I really liked & a book I fucking hated. Clearly I didn't hate this, though. In fact, I kind of loved it. The movie was pretty damn accurate to the book, but didn't quite have the same depth. The book did a better job at portraying the inner thoughts of the characters - especially with Sara.
The book spends a lot more time showing the slow descent into desperation for these addicts. The movie kind of seems like a long PSA/worst-case-scenario cautionary tale. "Do drugs and this is how you could end up!" And, while that's valid to an extent, (and could also be said about the book), I think the movie almost loses sight of the fact addiction is a disease, not just a result of an action. This is made much clearer in the book, in my opinion. The movie touches on it briefly - a little scene where Harry and Marion are talking about Sara's TV habit, for instance, but for the most part it just shows the most dramatic and horrifying aspects and kind of doesn't have time for the everyday problems of addiction.
Side note here: There's a lot of stereotyping in the book - the Jewish mother figure, her Yenta friends, the late-70s black character, the uber-racist South, etc. There's a lot of it, and it's extreme. But it's necessary, I think. This is not a subtle book. It's an intense in-your-face-with-a-2x4 kind of book, so I think that if the characters weren't also shown in extremes, it would have felt inconsistent to me. The movie does away with much of that, and I feel like it also takes away some, maybe a lot, of the impact.
The movie also glosses over some of the non-addiction-based ugliness shown in the book. Sara's care is a big, big, big one to me. In the book it's... horrifying. HORRIFYING. The movie portrays the care she receives at the end in a not-very-patient-friendly kind of way... but it's still care. The doctor tries various things, the orderlies are firm almost to the point of being rough - but you can see they are trying to help her even if it seems cruel. This is a sanitization of what's portrayed in the book. Sara, confused, lost in her own starvation- and drug-induced haze, is put into a horrific situation, where every act of trying to force food into her is like rape. There's not only a lack of care, but a lack of human decency, kindness, and empathy in general. It's frightening and terrifying to think that some bureaucratic pencil-pusher can strip someone of their basic human dignity simply to avoid authority conflicts.
Another example is how Tyrone is treated in the south. Some of the tone remains in the movie, but again it's a much milder version. In the book, Tyrone and Harry are hated universally once they step foot below the Mason/Dixon line. They are treated cruelly, as sub-human, because they are addicts. But Tyrone gets it worse, because he's black. They are arrested for vagrancy. FUCKING. VAGRANCY. OMG. I saw this and my stomach clenched. It makes me so angry and literally sickens me. Arrest them because they have fucking HEROIN in the car. Or because they are clearly intoxicated. Or for suspected car theft (because the car wasn't theirs), or for driving without a license (because they don't have one) or fucking any number of reasons that aren't the most fucked up and discriminatory one ever. Arrest them and follow due process, and I can understand. But this is horrific hatred that should have ended long before this book was set. But... of course, that's not how the world works, unfortunately.
The movie shows almost none of that racism based brutality. There's a general tone of suspicion and dislike, and a cruelty in general, but it is not overt in the movie, and it isn't even close to the book depiction. The movie doesn't say what they are arrested for, just that they were recognized as addicts and the police were called. I actually am disappointed that the overt racism was taken out of the movie. There's a scene in the book where they stop for gas, and the attendant won't serve them, lies about being out of gas, and that the bathroom is out of order, and spits on them... for nothing more than because Tyrone is black and Harry is a "n***** lover". Harry begins to argue, but Tyrone just gets back in the car to leave because he knows, even though he's never experienced THIS kind of racism before, just how ugly it can get. His treatment in jail in the book is fucking disgusting, and the movie completely avoids the topic - making it look like it's just a cruelty towards addicts, not that it's racism.
The exception to the movie 'softening' is Marion's situation. The book hints at the "play time" she participates in. "With other girls" and "she didn't know what she'd be doing" and "the smell on her lips and fingers" is pretty much all that we get in the book. But the movie goes very visual and very pull-no-punches there. I was kind of surprised by this, because I expected the book to be grittier and uglier in every way - including Marion's willingness to sell herself for her addiction. But the movie portrayed that very accurately, just elaborating on that one scene.
Other differences are more subtle. For instance, a lot of scenes where Harry & Tyrone struggled to find dope were left out of the movie. There's a tiny mention of it, where their dealer is killed out of nowhere, but that's not in the book. So the fear, anger, and need that's present is out of place because it's never really shown that there's just shortage, and EVERYONE has been desperate for months. This is the catalyst for the end of the book that spurs the decision to try to go to Florida and get weight for their dope-security, but it just feels shunted into the movie awkwardly.
Another subtle change is that Marion and Harry don’t have sex in the movie, though in the book they do many times. It's a kind of juxtaposition of how she feels when selling sex for her habit compared to how she feels having sex with Harry. The lack of sex in the movie, I think, is a nod to that relationship - that it's more than just physical, and that they really do love each other but the addiction, their elephant in the room, overwhelms that connection and makes them resent each other.
In the book, there's no closure or reconciliation, not even acceptance, as shown in the movie. Harry doesn't call Marion from jail, or even think about her. He only thinks about his arm and his pain. The further they get from NY, the further she is from his mind. His concern and focus gets smaller and smaller the further he and Tyrone drive, until it's centered on his infection to the exclusion of all else.
Harry and Tyrone’s relationship in the book starts to splinter as well. They hold back money and dope from each other, their addiction taking precedence over their friendship. At the end of the book, Tyrone is... almost de-humanized, in a way. Not only because of his withdrawal causing him to suffer, but also due to the treatment he experiences in the southern jail, all of which he blames Harry for. If he'd not suggested this trip, if he'd not kept shooting into his infected arm... if he'd done this or that differently, Tyrone wouldn't be in this situation. In the movie, that resentment doesn't exist - they are friends till the end (or, Tyrone is Harry's friend. Harry is sick.) Tyrone's need is present, and painful, but his friendship and concern for Harry's life trumps that. The book... not so much.
In both versions, poor Sara is alone with her own pain and needs and delusions. Her struggles are the most closely matched between the book and movie. She is the character that I feel the most for, who breaks my heart the most. The book really shows her loneliness and sadness a lot more than the movie, BUT Ellen Burstyn does a great job filling a lot of those gaps - the scene with Harry when he calls her out for being on pills is gut-wrenching. With four words, you can feel a decade's worth of sadness there. "I'm old. I'm alone." It gives me chills. Ellen Burstyn just brings her to life and makes her real and so sad.
Book Sara doesn't quite have that same power. By which I mean that I feel a huge amount of empathy for her character, and sadness and rage at how her life spirals out of control, all for want of being wanted and having nobody to speak on her behalf or help her. But it's more of a generalized "If this happened to anyone, I would feel this way" feeling, rather than identification with HER specifically.
Both versions have unresolved endings - but in the movie it's interesting to note that they throw a little symbolism in there. All four characters curl into a fetal position at the end, and both women are smiling. Two women who have fallen so far down that their only concern is their addiction. Sara's had a complete break from reality, hallucinating a happy TV reunion with Harry, and that's all she's really ever wanted anyway. Marion is just content that she's got a regular supply of dope, if she's willing to earn it. That’s security to her, and nothing else matters. Both men are crying, thinking about the dreams they've lost. Tyrone’s is to be safe and secure with a caring, supportive woman (his mother); and Harry’s thinking about how things have gone so bad with Marion.
There's really nothing to hope for with any of them. Harry has a habit of drowning his every feeling in heroin, and that won’t get easier after losing his arm, his friend, his girlfriend, and his mother. If he actually were to get treatment, he might make it - but where he is, I don't see anyone making an effort for him. Same with Tyrone, who has lost his friend, his freedom, his dignity, etc. With treatment, he might be OK, but if they just release him at the end of his sentence, he'd go right back to using. Marion, who has lost just about everything as well, her life now consists of selling sex to make a score to last her until the next one. Even if she were to have someone step in and try to help her, it wouldn't do any good. She's intelligent, manipulative, and she wants to feel good, not hurt mentally and physically. She doesn't have coping mechanisms, so I don't see her breaking the cycle either. Sara makes me the saddest, because Harry recognized what was happening, and could have stopped it if he tried, but instead he abandoned her because it was easier.
I want to talk about the writing style, and how I kept comparing it to the cinematography. I am impressed with how similar they feel. Darren Aronofsky truly captured the the feel.
But the writing style is messy. It worked because the BOOK is messy. It's spastic, urgent, shifting, and hazy, and it really FEELS that way. Run-on sentences abound (I think the longest I saw was 4 pages long), but they are put to good use. This was a scene where Harry is waiting for Marion to come home after he 'suggests' that Marion ask her shrink for money for dope. (In the book it's $300, not $2000. He sells her for so much less in the book. He goes along with her trips to Big Tim in the book too - that's not just a "Harry's gone, what do I do now??" desperation as it is in the movie.) He knows what's going, and he feels sick about it, but not enough to change or care. After all, she agreed to it - it's on her now too, right? After that he just distances himself from her scoring method – as long as they have a score at all. Anyway. These pages depict his feelings about what he's sent her out to do, why, how he's coping with it (or not), cycling through all of these emotions that he doesn't want to feel, but not wanting to get high because of their limited and insecure supply, but not able to stop... It's a perfect microcosm of his addiction in a long stream of consciousness that just works. It's not pretty - punctuation use is spotty at best, misspellings abound in a kind of patois that supports the stereotyping (ex: Christ is spelled 'krist'), capitalization is iffy, and it's just a mess of chaos... like the lives we're reading about. And it just worked for me.
This style really just dragged me along for the ride and I couldn’t look away. I read about 70% in one sitting yesterday. The way the dialogue was intermixed with the action, and I never knew really who was speaking, or whether it was thought, or hallucination, or dream, or reality only added to the texture. It almost didn't matter, because in the end, their dreams were their reality - more real to them than their reality was, anyway, and somehow the reader gets that.
I'm almost afraid to read Selby's other books now. I feel like writing styles like this should be used sparingly, consciously, and intentionally. They should be used to enhance and transform a particular story into an experience for the reader. This style, which I thought worked perfectly with this story, did that for me. So, if he just writes like this I'd be disappointed, because I'd feel like this wasn't an intentional choice.
I bring this up, because I felt like this after reading (and really enjoying) Saramago's Blindness. The style there worked beautifully with the story being told. But when I looked at other books, and it was the same style even though the stories were vastly different, it just feels gimmicky rather than a deliberate style choice made to fit the story.
Anyway, this book is brilliant and brutal. I loved it, but I don't know if I can recommend it. I love books that make me feel - and this one did, but it's not sunshine and rainbows that I felt, so I'd stay away from this one if that's what you're looking for.
September 26, 2010
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, I had LSS (last song syndrome) and my daughter caught me singing a part of it. She shrieked with joy and laughed out load. Strange but songs just get into our heads.
It is about four dreadful pathetic characters. Four Americans in Bronx in the 80s. There is middle-age, living by herself, obese Sara, the mother who wants to appear on a TV show in an old red dress that her dead husband Seymour really liked on her. So, she takes dieting pills until she can fit into that old worn-out dress. The thinks that being slim means being new and the whole world will discover how wonderful girl she is.
But Harold's and Ty's way of achieving this dream: drug pushing.
Seriously, there is that part in the lyrics.
In my iPod, I have this song by The Pussycat Dolls. One morning, I had LSS (last song syndrome) and my daughter caught me singing a part of it. She shrieked with joy and laughed out load. Strange but songs just get into our heads.
♪♫♪When I grow upNot sure why this song kept on popping in my head while reading this 1978 novel by Hubert Selby, Jr, Requiem for a Dream. It is an easy read and each character has its own voice. The appropriate emotion in each scene gets reflected on Selby's narration: it can get doped with the wrong spelling and narration; it can get lonely as you remember how many failed diets you tried and they all did not work; it can get orgasmic as Selby makes the lovers moan and moan endlessly and it can get very angry with the junkie son shouting at his poor mama's ears: WHATTA YA DOIN TO ME??? YOUR ONLY SON!!!!
Fresh and clean
Number one chick
When I step out on the scene ♪♫♪
It is about four dreadful pathetic characters. Four Americans in Bronx in the 80s. There is middle-age, living by herself, obese Sara, the mother who wants to appear on a TV show in an old red dress that her dead husband Seymour really liked on her. So, she takes dieting pills until she can fit into that old worn-out dress. The thinks that being slim means being new and the whole world will discover how wonderful girl she is.
♪♫♪When I grow upThere is Sara's only son, Harold or Harry and his girlfriend Marion, who, aside from making love twice a day, injecting their veins with cocaine and smoke grass and cigarettes in between, dream of putting up a coffee shop where Marion's paintings (she loves to paint and dream of become a famous painter someday) can be put on display. Then later they can go and tour the whole of Europe.
Be on TV
People know me
Be on magazines ♪♫♪
♪♫♪When I grow upThen there is Tyrone "Ty" C. Love thats ma name babe dreaming of a better life for him and his girl Alice.
I wanna see the world
Drive nice cars
I wanna have groupies ♪♫♪
♪♫♪When I grow up
Be on TV
People know me
Be on magazines♪♫♪
But Harold's and Ty's way of achieving this dream: drug pushing.
♪♫♪Be careful what you wish forThat's where the song went all wrong. They dreamed. Wrong way. They lost.
Cuz you just might get it
You just might get it
You just might get it ♪♫♪
♪♫♪HA HA HA HA♪♫♪
January 13, 2009
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 write "youre" or "Im?" What's wrong with you're and I'm?
Anyway, I'll never bother to read anything by this writer again.
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 write "youre" or "Im?" What's wrong with you're and I'm?
Anyway, I'll never bother to read anything by this writer again.
July 22, 2021
“Si el SEÑOR no edificare la casa, en vano trabajan los que la edifican…” Salmo 127, 1Con 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 desesperación.
El arranque de la novela es Selby en estado puro, frenético, delirante: un hijo encierra a su madre en el armario para quitarle el aparato de televisión que empeñará para pillar heroína. Pero pronto el relato se encamina por derroteros menos furiosos, menos rabiosos. La rabia se ha convertido en desesperanza en esta novela, la furia en tristeza.
La narración mantiene las señas distintivas de Selby: una aparente confusión de voces que se superponen en un incontenible torrente en el que diálogos y pensamientos se engarzan con la propia voz narradora; cambios constantes y sin transición entre la primera y la tercer persona con una puntuación muy particular; nada de recrearse en descripciones inútiles, si debemos enterarnos de algo, incluidas las características físicas de los personajes, será a través de sus diálogos o pensamientos; y, sobre todo, la novela es una nueva y magnífica demostración de cómo el autor extrae poesía hasta del mismo infierno.
“Harry y Marion sujetando entre ellos otro "popper" mientras sus cuerpos continuaban rozándose uno con otro mientras se reían y se agarraban como la piel uno a otro y la música continuó deslizándose entre el humo y las risas y alcanzaba oídos y cabezas y cerebros y mentes y en cierto modo salía por el otro lado impasible e inalterada y todos se sentían bien, tío, quiero decir bien de verdad, como si acabaran de partirle la cara a alguien muy violento o alcanzado la cima del Everest, o estuvieran muy colocados o flotaran en el aire como pájaros, sí, volando y flotando por las corrientes como pájaros, igual que grandes pájaros, tío... sí... como si de repente soltaran amarras, como si de repente fueran libres... libres... libres...”“Réquiem por un sueño” nos muestra los caminos entrelazados de cuatro personajes incapaces de tomar las riendas de sus vidas: Harry, su amigo Tyrone, su novia Marion y su madre Sara, que protagonizará los toques humorísticos de la novela y es también el centro de la historia más triste de todas. En sus vacías vidas, la droga les proporcionará la sensación de libertad y la libertad habilitará sus esperanzas.
Drogas y esperanza son caminos complicados y peligrosos de transitar, por ellos se arrastrarán los cuatro protagonistas hacia la dependencia y la insatisfacción permanente. Ambos son caminos que necesitan ser recorridos incesantemente, cada vez más rápido, ambos son corredores angostos que les impedirán mirar más allá de la posibilidad del pico siguiente o de esa realidad atrayente y engañosa que sus mentes han creado especialmente para ellos.
Drogas y esperanza les irán alejando más y más de la solución, si es que hay alguna, a medida que les van distanciando de la realidad, de la vida, de ellos mismos, hasta hacer de todo algo irreconocible. Selby no juzga, su novela es un auténtico ensayo de lo que significa el imperio de la adición a una sustancia, a un sueño, a una mentira: desde la euforia y la excitación de los inicios hasta la desesperación más absoluta en la que no quedará una gota de dignidad ni de respeto por uno mismo.
A pesar de la crudeza de la historia, Selby nos contagia de la infinita ternura y compasión con la que trata a estos personajes predestinados por la desdicha, sentenciados por su trágica fragilidad. Selby no le quita a ninguno de ellos ni un ápice de responsabilidad en sus vidas, pero solo en el sentido de que no se señalan culpables externos. Selby no está orgulloso de la sociedad en la que vive y, sin extenderse mucho, critica duramente al sistema político y policial y a la clase media norteamericana, no muy distinta de la de cualquier otro país.
“Es la misma mentalidad que construyó los campos de concentración. Pero fíjate en la clase media… ooooo, me saca de quicio. Podríamos estar mirando las noticias y viendo a los policías partiéndole la cabeza a la gente con sus porras y mi madre y mi padre dirían que aquello no pasaba de verdad o que eran unos hippies comunistas degenerados. Eso es lo que importa. Todo el mundo es comunista. Habla de libertad y derechos humanos, y eres comunista. Lo único de lo que ellos quieren hablar es de los sagrados derechos de los accionistas y de cómo protege nuestras propiedades la policía.”Sin embargo, no les hace responsables del fracaso de las vidas de estas cuatro personas, que si de algo sufren es de su frágil personalidad y de la falta de amor, de apoyo, de alguien que les haga sentirse necesarios.
En efecto, el SEÑOR no estaba presente en sus vidas, ni se le esperaba tampoco.
May 20, 2024
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 of losing weight and appearing on a television show. In her compulsive pursuit, fueled by the television, she gets hooked on diet pills, which eventually lead to dire consequences. Meanwhile, her son Harry, along with his girlfriend Marion and best friend Tyrone, tries to make their dreams come true by selling heroin. There's little difference between addiction to heroin and addiction to television programs; the outcome is roughly the same. Even as the characters' lives begin to unravel, they cling to their illusions, refusing to see that instead of realizing their fantasies, they've brought about their worst nightmares.
Hubert Selby Jr. is one of my favorite masters of transgressive fiction. His entry into literature is atypical. Selby underwent experimental treatment for tuberculosis with streptomycin, which resulted in a series of severe complications. During surgery to gain access to his lungs, surgeons removed eleven of his ribs. One lung was completely destroyed, and part of the other was also removed. Surgery saved Selby's life, but he suffered from health problems for the rest of his life. Additionally, after treatment, he developed a tendency towards painkillers and heroin. Selby spent ten years bedridden due to lung issues. Doctors said he probably wouldn't survive. A childhood friend, writer Gilbert Sorrentino, inspired Selby to take up literature. Unable to earn a living, Selby decided, 'I know the alphabet, maybe I can be a writer.' He never cared about the rules of grammar and punctuation. He wrote about what he knew and how he could. And Selby's rough prose only gains from it.
Hubert Selby Jr. is one of my favorite masters of transgressive fiction. His entry into literature is atypical. Selby underwent experimental treatment for tuberculosis with streptomycin, which resulted in a series of severe complications. During surgery to gain access to his lungs, surgeons removed eleven of his ribs. One lung was completely destroyed, and part of the other was also removed. Surgery saved Selby's life, but he suffered from health problems for the rest of his life. Additionally, after treatment, he developed a tendency towards painkillers and heroin. Selby spent ten years bedridden due to lung issues. Doctors said he probably wouldn't survive. A childhood friend, writer Gilbert Sorrentino, inspired Selby to take up literature. Unable to earn a living, Selby decided, 'I know the alphabet, maybe I can be a writer.' He never cared about the rules of grammar and punctuation. He wrote about what he knew and how he could. And Selby's rough prose only gains from it.
March 16, 2019
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 αλήθειας μέσω της ηδονικής αποχαύνωσης.
Το Ρέκβιεμ για ένα όνειρο εκφράζει με συγκλονιστικό τρόπο την αφοσίωση του συγγραφέα στην ανθρωπότητα.
Σε μία ανθρωπότητα ανυπόφορη, θλιβερή, γοητευτική, έντονη και βάρβαρα κατασκευασμένη να απωθεί μοιραία την ελευθερία και να ελκύει τον αβάσταχτο πόνο και το ασήκωτο βάρος της ύπουλης κόλασης, μιας κοινωνικά αποδέκτης εξάρτησης στον πυρήνα της.
Η γραφή του είναι εξεχόντως υποβλητική, με μια λαμπρότητα απλοϊκής έκφρασης, που παραλύει κάθε προσπάθεια αποστασιοποίησης απο τους δραματικά εξαίσιους χαρακτήρες.
Ο Σέλμπι γράφει με μια καταραμένη γλώσσα, ποιητική και επώδυνη, γεμίζοντας σελίδες πρόζας χωρίς σημεία στίξης, σαν να μιλάει στον αναγνώστη μέσα απο μια κινηματογραφική μορφή επικοινωνίας.
Ακούγεται εμφατικά η φωνή του να ψιθυρίζει, να μιλάει, να σιωπά, να ουρλιάζει βουβά ή ηχηρά σε σκηνές σοφής παραφροσύνης, σε εξευτελιστικές τελετουργίες θεραπείας, σε βωμούς εξαχρείωσης με μύστες την υποκρισία και την απόπειρα αυτοκαταστροφής.
Είναι ένα βιβλίο γεμάτο παγίδες,πρόβες με κίνητρα ωραιοποίησης της αδίστακτης αποτυχίας και διαφθοράς καθώς και την τραγική συνειδητοποίηση της παραίσθησης που αμείλικτα ζωντανεύει τους εφιάλτες και σώζει την αλύτρωτη απανθρωπιά με σαπουνόπερες, τηλεπαιχνίδια, τέρατα που κατοικοεδρεύουν στον ανθρώπινο νου και σκληρούς εθισμούς πόνου.
Απίστευτου πόνου, σωματικού και ψυχικού.
Με συνεπήρε και με συγκ��νησε έντονα η εμβάθυνση στους χαρακτήρες και η πίστη τους στον πανικό όταν χάνεται κάθε αίσθημα ελέγχου.
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς!!!
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 αλήθειας μέσω της ηδονικής αποχαύνωσης.
Το Ρέκβιεμ για ένα όνειρο εκφράζει με συγκλονιστικό τρόπο την αφοσίωση του συγγραφέα στην ανθρωπότητα.
Σε μία ανθρωπότητα ανυπόφορη, θλιβερή, γοητευτική, έντονη και βάρβαρα κατασκευασμένη να απωθεί μοιραία την ελευθερία και να ελκύει τον αβάσταχτο πόνο και το ασήκωτο βάρος της ύπουλης κόλασης, μιας κοινωνικά αποδέκτης εξάρτησης στον πυρήνα της.
Η γραφή του είναι εξεχόντως υποβλητική, με μια λαμπρότητα απλοϊκής έκφρασης, που παραλύει κάθε προσπάθεια αποστασιοποίησης απο τους δραματικά εξαίσιους χαρακτήρες.
Ο Σέλμπι γράφει με μια καταραμένη γλώσσα, ποιητική και επώδυνη, γεμίζοντας σελίδες πρόζας χωρίς σημεία στίξης, σαν να μιλάει στον αναγνώστη μέσα απο μια κινηματογραφική μορφή επικοινωνίας.
Ακούγεται εμφατικά η φωνή του να ψιθυρίζει, να μιλάει, να σιωπά, να ουρλιάζει βουβά ή ηχηρά σε σκηνές σοφής παραφροσύνης, σε εξευτελιστικές τελετουργίες θεραπείας, σε βωμούς εξαχρείωσης με μύστες την υποκρισία και την απόπειρα αυτοκαταστροφής.
Είναι ένα βιβλίο γεμάτο παγίδες,πρόβες με κίνητρα ωραιοποίησης της αδίστακτης αποτυχίας και διαφθοράς καθώς και την τραγική συνειδητοποίηση της παραίσθησης που αμείλικτα ζωντανεύει τους εφιάλτες και σώζει την αλύτρωτη απανθρωπιά με σαπουνόπερες, τηλεπαιχνίδια, τέρατα που κατοικοεδρεύουν στον ανθρώπινο νου και σκληρούς εθισμούς πόνου.
Απίστευτου πόνου, σωματικού και ψυχικού.
Με συνεπήρε και με συγκ��νησε έντονα η εμβάθυνση στους χαρακτήρες και η πίστη τους στον πανικό όταν χάνεται κάθε αίσθημα ελέγχου.
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς!!!
December 20, 2015
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 that the madness did not stop at the red signal from their burning veins but started jaywalking all around!
Selby Jr takes us on a disturbing tour of drug-infected streets of New Yorkers wandering here and there with the only objective of scoring their stuff in the cold weather among the carcasses disdainfully left to rot, struggling to survive between the Man (Who mans the streets!) and drug dealers (Who contaminates the streets!). As soon as you step into the scene, you will realize that this is not something conventional or just unorthodox, but just disturbingly strange.
Dream VS Dope
Does Dope instigate dreams or dreams bring the desire for dope? Hard to say! But the characters who are unhappy with their earthy lives and tired of their Nine-To-Five routine, take a shortcut to reach their seemingly unreachable dream with frequent injections of the fleeting dope, with a hope to prolong their sedated solitude which makes them feel themselves… and as a whole. Some fall for the other kind of oblivious addiction for fame which, they think, might save them from their boring loneliness and dull insignificance, gleefully trying to stash all their sorrows into the unreal lives of TV actors and unconsciously allowing the reality show anchors to chase them. But, the day-dreaming ends soon and the TV stops; TV actors vanish and the anchor is no longer waving at them. Nobody is there to cheer them anymore. Autumn is gone. Winter has come.
The characters dive into doing unjust and unimaginable things for just getting a shot, because what was once a relaxation or a pleasure has now become an impaling addiction from which they are trying to escape and striving to keep their distant dreams alive… and when the urge is too compelling, disposing their dreams away with the syringes used to kill them.
Selby Jr takes us on a disturbing tour of drug-infected streets of New Yorkers wandering here and there with the only objective of scoring their stuff in the cold weather among the carcasses disdainfully left to rot, struggling to survive between the Man (Who mans the streets!) and drug dealers (Who contaminates the streets!). As soon as you step into the scene, you will realize that this is not something conventional or just unorthodox, but just disturbingly strange.
Dream VS Dope
Does Dope instigate dreams or dreams bring the desire for dope? Hard to say! But the characters who are unhappy with their earthy lives and tired of their Nine-To-Five routine, take a shortcut to reach their seemingly unreachable dream with frequent injections of the fleeting dope, with a hope to prolong their sedated solitude which makes them feel themselves… and as a whole. Some fall for the other kind of oblivious addiction for fame which, they think, might save them from their boring loneliness and dull insignificance, gleefully trying to stash all their sorrows into the unreal lives of TV actors and unconsciously allowing the reality show anchors to chase them. But, the day-dreaming ends soon and the TV stops; TV actors vanish and the anchor is no longer waving at them. Nobody is there to cheer them anymore. Autumn is gone. Winter has come.
The characters dive into doing unjust and unimaginable things for just getting a shot, because what was once a relaxation or a pleasure has now become an impaling addiction from which they are trying to escape and striving to keep their distant dreams alive… and when the urge is too compelling, disposing their dreams away with the syringes used to kill them.
“I suspect there will never be a requiem for a dream, simply because it will destroy us before we have the opportunity to mourn it's passing.”
March 23, 2025
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 a vice that tightened its grip until the shattering climax. You'd have to be either brain-dead or soulless not to feel a surge of emotion I kid you not. It's such a frantic novel at times that made me felt like I was reading it on a treadmill: so yeah, it took my breath away. It could quite easily, give or take the odd thing here and there, have been written yesterday. Selby Jr depicts addicts in a way that takes no prisoners when it comes to their deterioration. The novel plummets these characters into an abyss where their hopes and dreams are smashed into a million little pieces because of addiction. Unlike the harsher, more brutal, Last Exit to Brooklyn; which was too an unforgettable visceral experience, this novel swoons with love and sex and friendship and, when it comes to Harry's mother Sara, with loneliness, that made me feel for and like the characters a lot more, and that kind of brought on a nostalgic warmth, where everything feels like its in its right place; where its all going to be OK: and then it isn't: Big time. Selby Jr's distinctive prose, where he doesn't give two hoots about the correct form when it comes to spelling, punctuation, quotation marks, etc... (example: he would use we/ll instead of we'll, and use different voices at the same time without indicating who is who), and that really captures the slang talk of the streets, just felt so right and so alive that you live and breathe inside this world until the last page. The whole thing shook me to the core and broke my heart. I don't think any other novel has affected me in the same way this did. Never to be forgotten.
March 26, 2012
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 through their emotional disconnectedness, or more likely, failure with their parents and sons, though more likely because heroin is sweeeeet. Selby’s style is a rush of exacting S-o-C sentences, staccato pops and blips, and more elegant art-patches whenever Marion is the focus. I would argue the descent happens a little briskly, especially Sara’s commitment to a psycho ward, and the subsequent brutality of doctors and police and nurses is a little quirk of Selby’s (the world outside his personnel’s bubble is a horrid brutalising place—maybe!), but it’s all good. This is a goddamn American classic. Now we live in an age where people will review your Kindle novel for five pounds. No wonder poppers are popular again.
October 22, 2024
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 1928, wasn't a Beat poet per se, his writing also aims to depict the lives of the subaltern in the big city, and he does so with great empathy.
Let's have a look at the two intertwining story arcs: For one, there's lonely Jewish widow Sara Goldfarb who spends her days watching TV and longs to find meaning in her life. She aims to get on TV herself, making it her project to work towards what we now call a glow-up and lose weight, all to be seen and appreciated, and to fill her time in what she hopes is a meaningful way. Her plans become an obsession, and her prescription diet pills are only the first of many failures the healthcare system will have in store for her. Then, there's Sara's son Harry who, together with his Black friend Tyrone and his mentally struggling artist girlfriend Marion, plans to make some money by selling heroin, but, you guessed it, a spiraling addiction will tear the friends apart and drive them to the edge.
What makes the novel so harrowing is that these people do make bad decisions and often should know better, but they are driven by the very human longing to be loved, to feel valued, to lead a meaningful life - but their dreams turn out to be delusions. Their attempts to make it in a harsh environment fail, and their communities cannot protect them. Selby shows the reality of American mental institutions, racist policing and the heroin crisis in New York in the 1970's in stark images that contrast with the vivid emotional inner lives the protagonists lead, until their humanity is taken from them. Many passages are reminiscent of the current opioid crisis as illuminated in Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty.
A novel about addiction, the failed promises of a country and the search for meaning and connection - published almost 50 years ago, but still way too relevant.
Let's have a look at the two intertwining story arcs: For one, there's lonely Jewish widow Sara Goldfarb who spends her days watching TV and longs to find meaning in her life. She aims to get on TV herself, making it her project to work towards what we now call a glow-up and lose weight, all to be seen and appreciated, and to fill her time in what she hopes is a meaningful way. Her plans become an obsession, and her prescription diet pills are only the first of many failures the healthcare system will have in store for her. Then, there's Sara's son Harry who, together with his Black friend Tyrone and his mentally struggling artist girlfriend Marion, plans to make some money by selling heroin, but, you guessed it, a spiraling addiction will tear the friends apart and drive them to the edge.
What makes the novel so harrowing is that these people do make bad decisions and often should know better, but they are driven by the very human longing to be loved, to feel valued, to lead a meaningful life - but their dreams turn out to be delusions. Their attempts to make it in a harsh environment fail, and their communities cannot protect them. Selby shows the reality of American mental institutions, racist policing and the heroin crisis in New York in the 1970's in stark images that contrast with the vivid emotional inner lives the protagonists lead, until their humanity is taken from them. Many passages are reminiscent of the current opioid crisis as illuminated in Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty.
A novel about addiction, the failed promises of a country and the search for meaning and connection - published almost 50 years ago, but still way too relevant.
October 26, 2025
A punch in the face! Without concession, SELBY JR describes all the horror generated by drug use, especially the worst of all, heroin. The descent into hell never ends. The carelessness of the protagonists, the certainty that they are stronger than their addiction, their almost unconscious malaise, marked stylistically by the lack of organization of the dialogues, a real destabilizing polyphony at the beginning, and then, as their disappointments, their dehumanization, the dialogues fade, each one withdraws into himself, prisoner of his fear and his addiction. An extraordinary book!!!
Recommendation from Paulo Faria
Recommendation from Paulo Faria
May 9, 2007
Wow wow wow wow wow. Requiem for a Dream manages to be so painful and beautiful at the same time. Although I'd seen the film before I read this book and knew the fate of the characters, I was still following their paths with such anxiety and hope. It's an account of people who dream big but lose much bigger.
It follows four characters in the Bronx. There's Sarah, a widow who spends her days living vicariously through her television while eating boxed chocolates. On the warm days, she joins her lifelong neighbors for chatting and sunbathing outdoors. When she receives a phone call informing her that she's been specially selected to participate in a new game show, her heart swells with anticipation. She recovers her red dress from her glory years, gets her hair colored a matching blaze, and begins obsessively dieting in order to fit into the dress once again, imagining herself being admired on TV and being the envy of the block. Sarah's son Harry, along with his best friend Tyrone and girlfriend Marion, are meanwhile doing some serious summer partying. Harry and Tyrone begin dealing heroin (plotting to score the pure stuff), and bringing in big bucks at first until the supply and demand of the streets catches up with them in the following winter months. Harry and Marion, who were once planning on taking the drug money and opening an artsy coffee shop, soon see their aspirations fade away. As their addictions worsen they become more and more desperate for a fix, going to extreme lengths they would have never stooped to in their purer days. Sarah remains on a parallel downward spiral, going back and forth between uppers and downers, practically oblivious to the devastating effects the pills are having on her health.
Selby's depictions of the 80s south Bronx are nightmarish--corpses in abandoned buildings, addicts faking each other out just so their lives can be spared. The writing style itself lends to atypical punctuation, marathon sentences, and street dialect, yet the style doesn't detract from the book's readability. The descriptions and the careful layering of the book's events will leave readers cringing as their hearts break for these characters.
The characters experience little warmth from the outside world of hospitals, medical clinics, and jails. While their need to be saved is so obvious, Selby paints a system that methodically grinds their faces in the dirt, whether it be to prejudice, profit, or just general apathy.
In the preface Selby states that "the book is about four individuals who pursued the American Dream, and the results of their pursuit." He ends the preface with: "Unfortunately, I suspect there never will be a requiem for the Dream, simply because it will destroy us before we have the opportunity to mourn its passing. Perhaps time will prove me wrong. As Mr. Hemingway said, 'Isn't it pretty to think so?'"
It follows four characters in the Bronx. There's Sarah, a widow who spends her days living vicariously through her television while eating boxed chocolates. On the warm days, she joins her lifelong neighbors for chatting and sunbathing outdoors. When she receives a phone call informing her that she's been specially selected to participate in a new game show, her heart swells with anticipation. She recovers her red dress from her glory years, gets her hair colored a matching blaze, and begins obsessively dieting in order to fit into the dress once again, imagining herself being admired on TV and being the envy of the block. Sarah's son Harry, along with his best friend Tyrone and girlfriend Marion, are meanwhile doing some serious summer partying. Harry and Tyrone begin dealing heroin (plotting to score the pure stuff), and bringing in big bucks at first until the supply and demand of the streets catches up with them in the following winter months. Harry and Marion, who were once planning on taking the drug money and opening an artsy coffee shop, soon see their aspirations fade away. As their addictions worsen they become more and more desperate for a fix, going to extreme lengths they would have never stooped to in their purer days. Sarah remains on a parallel downward spiral, going back and forth between uppers and downers, practically oblivious to the devastating effects the pills are having on her health.
Selby's depictions of the 80s south Bronx are nightmarish--corpses in abandoned buildings, addicts faking each other out just so their lives can be spared. The writing style itself lends to atypical punctuation, marathon sentences, and street dialect, yet the style doesn't detract from the book's readability. The descriptions and the careful layering of the book's events will leave readers cringing as their hearts break for these characters.
The characters experience little warmth from the outside world of hospitals, medical clinics, and jails. While their need to be saved is so obvious, Selby paints a system that methodically grinds their faces in the dirt, whether it be to prejudice, profit, or just general apathy.
In the preface Selby states that "the book is about four individuals who pursued the American Dream, and the results of their pursuit." He ends the preface with: "Unfortunately, I suspect there never will be a requiem for the Dream, simply because it will destroy us before we have the opportunity to mourn its passing. Perhaps time will prove me wrong. As Mr. Hemingway said, 'Isn't it pretty to think so?'"
May 6, 2021
I'm not even sure where to begin. This book was incredibly hard, and at times painful, to read. The opening scene is of a young man and his friend taking his mother's television to the pawnshop to get money for heroin. Although there is nothing funny about that when you really think about it, I thought that I was in for a sad story told in a comical way. I mean this t.v. has been pawned by the boy and then bought back by the mom so many times that the pawnshop owner has a book to record the transactions. That's almost funny, right? No, it's not. I think Selby made this scene verge on the comical to ease us into the despair and depravity waiting in the following pages.
I read a lot so reading about drugs is not new or scandalous to me, but this was written as if I, the reader, should be well versed in Heroin. I'm not. My association with it goes about as far as the movies Gia and Trainspotting. This was so, so intensely bad. I felt dirty as I read. I didn't have an understanding of most of the terms associated with the drug that Harry (the boy in the opening scene) Tyrone, and Marion were in love with. As I read I grew to understand more and more, but at the same time, I understood less and less. How could you let yourself get into such dire straits for something so nasty? It was just...gross! The idea of needles is icky on its own, but I looked up Heroin, and pretty much everything to do with it is disgusting. I mean everything. You feel withdrawal after 6 hours! I'll just stick to the occasional drink, thanks.
In addition to those three's Heroin addiction, Harry's mom is addicted to t.v. This addiction leads to an addiction to speed and Valium, which she innocently discovers in an effort to trim down and look good for her television debut. I found it infinitely clever the way Selby traces her addictions alongside the other three. She just wants to lose weight, be healthy, look good, fit in the dress she wore to her son's Bar Mitzvah. How could that be wrong? I could identify on some level with her addiction and increasingly downward spiral because of its commonness. As I continued to read I began to identify with the Heroin addicts as well because Selby made it clear that addiction is addiction. Plain and simple. Too much of anything, for any reason, even the pursuit of a dream, is too damn much!
Like E.E. Cummings and Cormac McCarthy, Selby disregards quotation marks and apostrophes. It makes for difficult reading in the beginning, but as I continued to read I understood his disdain. As the characters became increasingly depraved, who the hell cared about punctuation? Understanding their dialogue takes effort and I'm glad. I wouldn't want to understand them easily. I want there to be a disconnect between myself and these pitiful creatures. The lack of punctuation allowed me to keep that distance.
This book was bleak and painful to read, but it was incredibly well written. Not all stories are rainbows and sunshine and this could not have been further from that, but it was well told nonetheless.
I read a lot so reading about drugs is not new or scandalous to me, but this was written as if I, the reader, should be well versed in Heroin. I'm not. My association with it goes about as far as the movies Gia and Trainspotting. This was so, so intensely bad. I felt dirty as I read. I didn't have an understanding of most of the terms associated with the drug that Harry (the boy in the opening scene) Tyrone, and Marion were in love with. As I read I grew to understand more and more, but at the same time, I understood less and less. How could you let yourself get into such dire straits for something so nasty? It was just...gross! The idea of needles is icky on its own, but I looked up Heroin, and pretty much everything to do with it is disgusting. I mean everything. You feel withdrawal after 6 hours! I'll just stick to the occasional drink, thanks.
In addition to those three's Heroin addiction, Harry's mom is addicted to t.v. This addiction leads to an addiction to speed and Valium, which she innocently discovers in an effort to trim down and look good for her television debut. I found it infinitely clever the way Selby traces her addictions alongside the other three. She just wants to lose weight, be healthy, look good, fit in the dress she wore to her son's Bar Mitzvah. How could that be wrong? I could identify on some level with her addiction and increasingly downward spiral because of its commonness. As I continued to read I began to identify with the Heroin addicts as well because Selby made it clear that addiction is addiction. Plain and simple. Too much of anything, for any reason, even the pursuit of a dream, is too damn much!
Like E.E. Cummings and Cormac McCarthy, Selby disregards quotation marks and apostrophes. It makes for difficult reading in the beginning, but as I continued to read I understood his disdain. As the characters became increasingly depraved, who the hell cared about punctuation? Understanding their dialogue takes effort and I'm glad. I wouldn't want to understand them easily. I want there to be a disconnect between myself and these pitiful creatures. The lack of punctuation allowed me to keep that distance.
This book was bleak and painful to read, but it was incredibly well written. Not all stories are rainbows and sunshine and this could not have been further from that, but it was well told nonetheless.
March 22, 2023
اولین کتاب سالِ1402
انسان هایی با رویاها و آرزوهای بزرگ،در تلاش برای رسیدن بهشون و فاصله گرفتن از چیزهایی که اذیتشون می کنه به مواد پناه می برن،ابتدا برای تفریح و بعد به آهستگی درگیر اعتیاد می شن و چیزهایی که دارن رو یکی پس از دیگری از دست می دن.
این کتاب به خوبی نشون می ده اعتیاد چجوری به روح،روان،وجدان،عشق و دوستی غلبه می کنه
1402/1/2
انسان هایی با رویاها و آرزوهای بزرگ،در تلاش برای رسیدن بهشون و فاصله گرفتن از چیزهایی که اذیتشون می کنه به مواد پناه می برن،ابتدا برای تفریح و بعد به آهستگی درگیر اعتیاد می شن و چیزهایی که دارن رو یکی پس از دیگری از دست می دن.
این کتاب به خوبی نشون می ده اعتیاد چجوری به روح،روان،وجدان،عشق و دوستی غلبه می کنه
1402/1/2
January 7, 2009
I'm quite surprised that many readers regard it as a book about drug addiction and junkies of different types. I (as the title clearly states) mainly see it as an attempt of pursuing the American Dream, the one that grants all American citizens total and pure freedom. And so, since nobody really knows if the Dream is dead or not, anybody is free to try it out.
What makes it better than the film (if this was ever debatable), is the story-line and the stories behind the characters. Due to my bad memory, I can hardly remember the story in the film, I got stuck on some recurring images and that's pretty much it.
The book was written 30 years ago, but you wouldn't notice that. Well, probably if it had been recently written, it would have involved some computers or iPods :). I only regret I didn't read the English version, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the way Selby's messing with grammar and punctuation.
What makes it better than the film (if this was ever debatable), is the story-line and the stories behind the characters. Due to my bad memory, I can hardly remember the story in the film, I got stuck on some recurring images and that's pretty much it.
The book was written 30 years ago, but you wouldn't notice that. Well, probably if it had been recently written, it would have involved some computers or iPods :). I only regret I didn't read the English version, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the way Selby's messing with grammar and punctuation.
January 30, 2019
There is nothing warm and fuzzy about this book. In fact, every time you pick it up to read it and set it back down, you will feel like you dropped your ice cream cone in the sand.
It's torture. It's hell. And it's about as real as a novel can get.
This book tells the story of three friends and their pursuit of the American dream. It also includes the story of the mother of one of the characters. They are all addicts. The friends are addicted to heroin and cocaine and mom is addicted to prescription diet pills.
I felt something for each of these characters and I desperately wanted to reach into the book and save them.
Addiction tears the lives apart and they turn on each other. There is no happy ending for any of them. It's a nightmare ending for all four.
It's an extremely harsh story but the author made no attempt to cover up drug addiction and paint it as something pretty.
It's one of the sickest stories I've ever read. It's one of the saddest stories I've ever read. And it's one of the greatest stories I've ever read. Hubert Selby Jr. is a tremendous author and you will feel every sentence.
It's torture. It's hell. And it's about as real as a novel can get.
This book tells the story of three friends and their pursuit of the American dream. It also includes the story of the mother of one of the characters. They are all addicts. The friends are addicted to heroin and cocaine and mom is addicted to prescription diet pills.
I felt something for each of these characters and I desperately wanted to reach into the book and save them.
Addiction tears the lives apart and they turn on each other. There is no happy ending for any of them. It's a nightmare ending for all four.
It's an extremely harsh story but the author made no attempt to cover up drug addiction and paint it as something pretty.
It's one of the sickest stories I've ever read. It's one of the saddest stories I've ever read. And it's one of the greatest stories I've ever read. Hubert Selby Jr. is a tremendous author and you will feel every sentence.
January 4, 2023
از معدود کتابهاییه که فیلمش رو بیشتر دوست دارم.
البته ترجمهش هم چنگی بهدل نمیزد.
امیدوارم با توصیفهای طول کتاب کسی معتاد نشه و اگر هم ترغیب شد، تا آخرش صبر کنه. :))
با اینکه میدونستم آخرش چیه، ولی باز یه حالیم. باید یهچیز بخونم که بشوره ببره.
البته ترجمهش هم چنگی بهدل نمیزد.
امیدوارم با توصیفهای طول کتاب کسی معتاد نشه و اگر هم ترغیب شد، تا آخرش صبر کنه. :))
با اینکه میدونستم آخرش چیه، ولی باز یه حالیم. باید یهچیز بخونم که بشوره ببره.
February 11, 2013
I came to Selby because I realized that I was interested in a genre called transgressive fiction, which I had not, until recently, even heard of. When I checked out the genre, in addition to many of my favorite books, I discovered that Selby was a leading writer. I then read Last Exit To Brooklyn and loved it, so I followed up with this book. It never occurred to me it would be as good. It turns out that Requiem For A Dream is the best book I have read written since the 1950's.
The book is about addicts. Three of the main characters are heroin addicts and one is addicted to diet pills. But really it is through the vehicle of addiction that Selby rips apart the whole American Dream (the dream of the title) and tears up the illusions on which modern western society is based. He does it in a book of incredible power and honesty and it is a crime that this man never won a Nobel prize or Pulitzer. The book is simply too challenging, I think, to people's basic beliefs and its critique is too accurate and true.
Selby is a writer who never ever turns away from his subject matter and who never ever lies. I think that a lot of people will think that he is exaggerating, but he isn't and that is the way it is. By focusing on lowlifes and the very dregs of society Selby exposes both the unattainability and worthlessness of modern American Values. His point is to show that the materialistic values of suburbia and of television rest on the shattered lives of an underclass, that those values and goods are antithetical to real human relations and that the lifestyle is not really achievable.
It is a world where someone's whole life including their sanity and identity can be destroyed for the chance of appearing on a quiz show.
Selby is a deeply Christian writer. His works begin with a biblical quote and in some sense his message is a message of Christian love. It is not his characters who achieve this love. His characters are inevitably consumed and destroyed by buying into the values of post-western civilization. They are turned into isolated monads with no windows and they are destroyed.
It is Selby himself who achieves this love. He loves, loves, loves his characters. He loves them even though he does not sentimentalize them at all, and even though they are the very dregs of society fed on self-destructive delusions. He makes you love them, and feel with them, and as I have said he does not lie and he does not turn away.
His prose is a sort of mutant step child of Falkner and Hemingway, born in the gutter. The pages of Requiem are on fire as you read them and the words writhe in your brain. He spares nothing, but he teaches you to love the downtrodden in a society that is inherently evil.
Selby's writing is truly great writing. The closest thing to it is Dostoevsky. Like him he challenges the very moral foundations of our society by looking at those at the very bottom.
At once a book of love through understanding and also a book full of rage against a society that is seen as evil, and destructive, it is one of the greatest books ever written.
The book is about addicts. Three of the main characters are heroin addicts and one is addicted to diet pills. But really it is through the vehicle of addiction that Selby rips apart the whole American Dream (the dream of the title) and tears up the illusions on which modern western society is based. He does it in a book of incredible power and honesty and it is a crime that this man never won a Nobel prize or Pulitzer. The book is simply too challenging, I think, to people's basic beliefs and its critique is too accurate and true.
Selby is a writer who never ever turns away from his subject matter and who never ever lies. I think that a lot of people will think that he is exaggerating, but he isn't and that is the way it is. By focusing on lowlifes and the very dregs of society Selby exposes both the unattainability and worthlessness of modern American Values. His point is to show that the materialistic values of suburbia and of television rest on the shattered lives of an underclass, that those values and goods are antithetical to real human relations and that the lifestyle is not really achievable.
It is a world where someone's whole life including their sanity and identity can be destroyed for the chance of appearing on a quiz show.
Selby is a deeply Christian writer. His works begin with a biblical quote and in some sense his message is a message of Christian love. It is not his characters who achieve this love. His characters are inevitably consumed and destroyed by buying into the values of post-western civilization. They are turned into isolated monads with no windows and they are destroyed.
It is Selby himself who achieves this love. He loves, loves, loves his characters. He loves them even though he does not sentimentalize them at all, and even though they are the very dregs of society fed on self-destructive delusions. He makes you love them, and feel with them, and as I have said he does not lie and he does not turn away.
His prose is a sort of mutant step child of Falkner and Hemingway, born in the gutter. The pages of Requiem are on fire as you read them and the words writhe in your brain. He spares nothing, but he teaches you to love the downtrodden in a society that is inherently evil.
Selby's writing is truly great writing. The closest thing to it is Dostoevsky. Like him he challenges the very moral foundations of our society by looking at those at the very bottom.
At once a book of love through understanding and also a book full of rage against a society that is seen as evil, and destructive, it is one of the greatest books ever written.
December 17, 2012
Requiem for a Dream was an addiction for me.
The pun intended.
I couldn't read this fast enough. I wish I hadn't been so busy, and could have devoured this in one day. This is an easy, five star favorite for me.
Requiem was my first Selby, Jr. read, and it definitely impressed me. The writing style is his own, and every character's personality was so visual and real. The story of these four people is heartbreaking in their own ways, but, compulsively readable in their own right.
Is it weird to sympathize and feel bad for a drug addict? Is it weird I cared about them? Probably....but I couldn't help it. Harry, Sara, Tyrone, and Marion, the four main characters, were all my favorite. They were each their own character, and they all worked so well together. They felt real, and not just some carbon copy of your typical idea of a junkie. I could hear their voices in my head because of the way each is written.
I wish I could say more about how much I love this book. But for some reason, I'm finding it hard to pen exactly what my feelings are about it.
I want say this for anyone interested in this book....This book is not for everyone.
Requiem for a Dream was my first Hubert Selby, Jr. read. And it definitely won't be the last.
The pun intended.
I couldn't read this fast enough. I wish I hadn't been so busy, and could have devoured this in one day. This is an easy, five star favorite for me.
Requiem was my first Selby, Jr. read, and it definitely impressed me. The writing style is his own, and every character's personality was so visual and real. The story of these four people is heartbreaking in their own ways, but, compulsively readable in their own right.
Is it weird to sympathize and feel bad for a drug addict? Is it weird I cared about them? Probably....but I couldn't help it. Harry, Sara, Tyrone, and Marion, the four main characters, were all my favorite. They were each their own character, and they all worked so well together. They felt real, and not just some carbon copy of your typical idea of a junkie. I could hear their voices in my head because of the way each is written.
I wish I could say more about how much I love this book. But for some reason, I'm finding it hard to pen exactly what my feelings are about it.
I want say this for anyone interested in this book....This book is not for everyone.
Requiem for a Dream was my first Hubert Selby, Jr. read. And it definitely won't be the last.
Read
September 24, 2019“For weeks Tyrone thought he was going to die any minute, and there were also times when he was afraid he wasnt going to die.”
Somehow after watching the movie the book is bearable but still pretty heartbreaking. It is a great book if you have the time to actually read it, 'cause, it needs time to be digested.
You need the time to cry and mourn for the lives of these characters, is sad and heartbreaking, and it will make you wonder what are you doing reading this in the first place.
Requiem for a dream has its ups and downs, at times, more downs than ups. But is worthy. You end up learning a lot about yourself on these pages.
My best advice is: If you don't like the first pages Odds are, you won't like it at all. So don't waste your time.
“Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.”
Somehow after watching the movie the book is bearable but still pretty heartbreaking. It is a great book if you have the time to actually read it, 'cause, it needs time to be digested.
You need the time to cry and mourn for the lives of these characters, is sad and heartbreaking, and it will make you wonder what are you doing reading this in the first place.
Requiem for a dream has its ups and downs, at times, more downs than ups. But is worthy. You end up learning a lot about yourself on these pages.
My best advice is: If you don't like the first pages Odds are, you won't like it at all. So don't waste your time.
“Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.”
May 11, 2008
I read a review about the movie that said that the movie, Requiem, burrows under your skin and stays there for a while. This is true of the book, too. Each character speaks differently and you have to get used to their way of speaking as the author doesn't use punctuation marks and end sentences with 'Harry replied' or 'Marian said.' It is a fresh style of reading. This book IS very disturbing; so disturbing that a friend of mine threw it across the room when he finished it and asked me why anyone should ever subject themselves to reading it. I happen to like disturbing, but if you do not, or are highly sensitive, don't read this book. I balanced it with something really light and fluffy. That being said, there is painstaking beauty within the story, too. Or rather, within the characters, that you really hope will change their ways. I liked that even though I saw the movie first, I wasn't picturing Jared and Marlon, Ellen and Jennifer. The characters took on their own unique characteristics, different from those portrayed in the film. I also like that for as timeless as the film was (could be modern day, could be the 1970's), the book was very much a time-piece for Brooklyn.
This book takes its reader on the roller coaster ride of the rise and fall of the characters dreams, whether it's losing a little weight to fit into a special dress, or stashing away money to open a coffee shop, and falling prey to vicious addictions. I felt like I was sitting in Sara's apartment with her, feeling the loneliness and destitude that accompanies being widowed when your only son is grown up and out of the house. I wondered how far these characters would go to reach their dreams only to realize that those dreams were no longer within their grasp. But delusions are powerful and addiction is even more so.
This book takes its reader on the roller coaster ride of the rise and fall of the characters dreams, whether it's losing a little weight to fit into a special dress, or stashing away money to open a coffee shop, and falling prey to vicious addictions. I felt like I was sitting in Sara's apartment with her, feeling the loneliness and destitude that accompanies being widowed when your only son is grown up and out of the house. I wondered how far these characters would go to reach their dreams only to realize that those dreams were no longer within their grasp. But delusions are powerful and addiction is even more so.
September 20, 2024
This is a beautiful and tragic book. It isn’t hard to say addiction is bad; it’s hard to portray addiction in a way that draws us closer to the addict and makes us sympathetic to their struggle. Throughout this story, we find ourselves hoping for the best as we watch the car drive straight at the wall while picking up speed. I would describe the writing style as a hybrid of Steinbeck and Kerouac. On that note, this book has a lot of phonetic spelling, no dialog attribution, and very few paragraph breaks. As such, it starts off a little tricky to follow, but Selby is a talented enough storyteller that you’ll fall into the rhythm quickly. Something interesting-as the story deepens and the situation becomes bleaker (I’m not spoiling anything; shame on you if you think a story about hardcore drug addiction will turn out roses), the writing becomes more focused and revealing in terms of the character’s inner thoughts. The closer we get to the pain, the more we understand. I’ll definitely read Last Exit to Brooklyn as well. I think Selby was a singular voice. I get why I have heard a lot of praise for him from other writers for years.
February 11, 2022
Novela durísima sobre adicciones y problemas familiares en la que cuatro personajes luchan contra la soledad y corren desesperadamente tras su ansiado sueño americano.
Hubert Selby Jr., en un estilo crudo en el que no se anda con vueltas aprovecha también para criticar lo fría y deshumanizada de la sociedad del momento y consigue sin duda que la historia cale hondo en el lector.
Un punto a mi gusto negativo es el estilo de puntuación para los diálogos, ya que las voces de los distintos personajes se separan entre sí solo por un punto y seguido. Así que en una misma línea podemos leer las voces de varios personajes e incluso la voz narradora en tercera persona sin que se nos indique los cambios, los cual puede ser algo confuso.
Es una novela dura que te engancha desde el comienzo y no suelta. Esta muy bien.
3,5
Hubert Selby Jr., en un estilo crudo en el que no se anda con vueltas aprovecha también para criticar lo fría y deshumanizada de la sociedad del momento y consigue sin duda que la historia cale hondo en el lector.
Un punto a mi gusto negativo es el estilo de puntuación para los diálogos, ya que las voces de los distintos personajes se separan entre sí solo por un punto y seguido. Así que en una misma línea podemos leer las voces de varios personajes e incluso la voz narradora en tercera persona sin que se nos indique los cambios, los cual puede ser algo confuso.
Es una novela dura que te engancha desde el comienzo y no suelta. Esta muy bien.
3,5
January 16, 2019
I don’t know why I was rooting for the characters in this book. I knew deep down, in true Selby style, they’d be stripped to nothing, one by one. Totally on the edge of my seat the whole time. So sad but so full of character.
March 3, 2019
Esco malconcia da questa lettura: qualche costola incrinata, un occhio tumefatto, i nervi scossi, il cuore gonfio di tristezza.
No, non vedrò il film che Darren Aronofsky ha tratto dal romanzo. Sì, lo so che è bello, ma mi bastano il libro e la perfetta Colonna sonora di Clint Mansell.
https://youtu.be/CZMuDbaXbC8
Ma con Hubert Selby Jr non ho ancora finito.
No, non vedrò il film che Darren Aronofsky ha tratto dal romanzo. Sì, lo so che è bello, ma mi bastano il libro e la perfetta Colonna sonora di Clint Mansell.
https://youtu.be/CZMuDbaXbC8
Ma con Hubert Selby Jr non ho ancora finito.
February 12, 2013
Some stories can shake me to the core. Today, I finished one such story.
I’ve heard talk about the film Requiem for a Dream for several years now, how it’s considered one of the most disturbing and hopeless movies of all time.
Sounds fun, right?
Due to the hype, I decided to check out the novel off of which the film is based.
Premise
Hubert Selby Jr.’s 1978 book of the same title has what sounds like a simple plot: people get addicted to drugs, and it’s bad. From the back of the book: “In Coney Island, Broolyn, Sara Goldfarb, a lonely widow, wants nothing more than to lose weight and appear on a television game show. She becomes addicted to diet pills in her obsessive quest, while her junkie son Harry, along with his girlfriend Marion, and his best friend Tyrone, have devised an illicit shortcut to wealth and leisure by scoring a pound of uncut heroin. Entranced by the gleaming visions of their futures, these four convince themselves that unexpected setbacks are only temporary. Even as their lives slowly deteriorate around them, they cling to their delusions and become utterly consumed in the spiral of drugs and addiction, refusing to see that they have instead created their own worst nightmares.”
Words on fire
This was the most visceral reading experience I’ve ever had. Not just due to the graphic and devastating subject matter, but due to Selby’s unique prose. He pays little to no regard to writing conventions such as grammar, spelling or punctuation. Paragraphs often continue on for several pages with multiple speakers, but no quotation marks or attributions indicating who is saying what.
I honestly didn’t think I’d make it through the book when I first started. But the text literally came to life, bringing me right into the crazed haze along with the characters, violently assaulting me with an arsenal of imagery and emotions which continued sometimes for pages before the period would finally show up to end the sentence.
A cautionary takeaway
Let me say this loud and clear that Requiem for a Dream is not for the faint-hearted. It’s graphic, disturbing and, at times, terrifying. More than anything, it’s a cautionary tale about dreams and the means we can use to achieve them. In addition, it’s far more powerful than any anti-drug PSA you’ll ever see or hear. Darren Aronofsky, who directed the controversial film, wrote that he “needed to make a film from this novel because the words burn off the page. Like a hangman’s noose, the words scorch your neck with rope burn and drag you into the sub-sub-basement we humans build beneath hell. Why do we do it? Because we choose to live the dream instead of choosing to live the life.”
Personally, I can say that this novel has already changed the way I look at the world around me. As it says in the forward, “It’s Selby’s gift to us that once again we find ourselves aching for his people – which is to say we find ourselves loving the unloveable.”
As I delved further and further into the story, I came to love these hopelessly lost characters, and in all honesty, my heart broke more and more with each passing page. I wanted them to achieve their dreams. I wanted them to get clean. I hated Selby for making me trudge through hell with Sara, Tyrone, Harry and Marion. This won’t ruin the plot at all; the end result is forecast from the very beginning, but nothing can prepare you for the journey itself. I’m not the first reviewer to say this, but the reader’s love is the only thing that comes out on top in Requiem for a Dream.
“And so the city became even more savage with the passing of each day, with the taking of each step, the breathing of each breath. From time to time a body would fall from a window and before the blood had a chance to seep through the clothing hands were going through his pockets to see what might be found to help them through another moment of being suspended in Hell.”
I’ve heard talk about the film Requiem for a Dream for several years now, how it’s considered one of the most disturbing and hopeless movies of all time.
Sounds fun, right?
Due to the hype, I decided to check out the novel off of which the film is based.
Premise
Hubert Selby Jr.’s 1978 book of the same title has what sounds like a simple plot: people get addicted to drugs, and it’s bad. From the back of the book: “In Coney Island, Broolyn, Sara Goldfarb, a lonely widow, wants nothing more than to lose weight and appear on a television game show. She becomes addicted to diet pills in her obsessive quest, while her junkie son Harry, along with his girlfriend Marion, and his best friend Tyrone, have devised an illicit shortcut to wealth and leisure by scoring a pound of uncut heroin. Entranced by the gleaming visions of their futures, these four convince themselves that unexpected setbacks are only temporary. Even as their lives slowly deteriorate around them, they cling to their delusions and become utterly consumed in the spiral of drugs and addiction, refusing to see that they have instead created their own worst nightmares.”
Words on fire
This was the most visceral reading experience I’ve ever had. Not just due to the graphic and devastating subject matter, but due to Selby’s unique prose. He pays little to no regard to writing conventions such as grammar, spelling or punctuation. Paragraphs often continue on for several pages with multiple speakers, but no quotation marks or attributions indicating who is saying what.
I honestly didn’t think I’d make it through the book when I first started. But the text literally came to life, bringing me right into the crazed haze along with the characters, violently assaulting me with an arsenal of imagery and emotions which continued sometimes for pages before the period would finally show up to end the sentence.
A cautionary takeaway
Let me say this loud and clear that Requiem for a Dream is not for the faint-hearted. It’s graphic, disturbing and, at times, terrifying. More than anything, it’s a cautionary tale about dreams and the means we can use to achieve them. In addition, it’s far more powerful than any anti-drug PSA you’ll ever see or hear. Darren Aronofsky, who directed the controversial film, wrote that he “needed to make a film from this novel because the words burn off the page. Like a hangman’s noose, the words scorch your neck with rope burn and drag you into the sub-sub-basement we humans build beneath hell. Why do we do it? Because we choose to live the dream instead of choosing to live the life.”
Personally, I can say that this novel has already changed the way I look at the world around me. As it says in the forward, “It’s Selby’s gift to us that once again we find ourselves aching for his people – which is to say we find ourselves loving the unloveable.”
As I delved further and further into the story, I came to love these hopelessly lost characters, and in all honesty, my heart broke more and more with each passing page. I wanted them to achieve their dreams. I wanted them to get clean. I hated Selby for making me trudge through hell with Sara, Tyrone, Harry and Marion. This won’t ruin the plot at all; the end result is forecast from the very beginning, but nothing can prepare you for the journey itself. I’m not the first reviewer to say this, but the reader’s love is the only thing that comes out on top in Requiem for a Dream.
“And so the city became even more savage with the passing of each day, with the taking of each step, the breathing of each breath. From time to time a body would fall from a window and before the blood had a chance to seep through the clothing hands were going through his pockets to see what might be found to help them through another moment of being suspended in Hell.”
May 12, 2013
Darren Aronofsky, who directed the film adaptation of Requiem for a dream wrote 'I needed to make a film from this novel because the words burn off the page. Like a hangman's noose, the words scorch your neck with rope burn and drag you into the sub-sub-basement we humans build beneath hell'. I concur. And there is not a great deal i can add to that apart from a few personal musings.
It took me quite a long time to read this book, as being an addict and alcoholic myself i found the experience suprisingly overwhelming and emotionally painful. Then at the end of the book, there is a short biography about the genius author which highlights a few things which make it more understandable why this didn't just feel like a book to me, but something a bit more, like a connection was made with the author. Selby Jr was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, like myself and also struggled with addiction problems all his life. I hear real life stories similar to this day in day out, week in week out from people recovering or attempting to recover from what is an illness that only those people with the illness can understand. So the authors genius really lies in his ability to put this across to a mass audience.
If you look on the web, unsuprisingly this book appears on numerous 'Top ten most disturbing novels' lists. I read a lot of the reviews for this book associated with the these lists and was suprised by a number of reviews which were adamant that Selby Jrs portrayal of the escalation of drug use was inaccurate, overblown and unrealistic scare mongering. I used to think like that, for example when i read 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' many, many years ago and hadn't yet been stung. I honestly hope people who have such delusional thoughts don't pay with their lives one day.
I needed to read this book. Having become slightly disillusioned and bored with sobriety recently and tormented with emotional pain that i thought i had got rid of for good, thoughts had been creeping into my mind of going back out there and having another go at the merry dance. Having just finished the last page and taken a momentary glance at my seven year old daughter who is sprawled all over me on the sofa, innocently watching kids tv and kicking me in the ribs, i've decided i'll take emotional pain any minute of the day thank you very much. Its a gift compared to the alternative.
It took me quite a long time to read this book, as being an addict and alcoholic myself i found the experience suprisingly overwhelming and emotionally painful. Then at the end of the book, there is a short biography about the genius author which highlights a few things which make it more understandable why this didn't just feel like a book to me, but something a bit more, like a connection was made with the author. Selby Jr was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, like myself and also struggled with addiction problems all his life. I hear real life stories similar to this day in day out, week in week out from people recovering or attempting to recover from what is an illness that only those people with the illness can understand. So the authors genius really lies in his ability to put this across to a mass audience.
If you look on the web, unsuprisingly this book appears on numerous 'Top ten most disturbing novels' lists. I read a lot of the reviews for this book associated with the these lists and was suprised by a number of reviews which were adamant that Selby Jrs portrayal of the escalation of drug use was inaccurate, overblown and unrealistic scare mongering. I used to think like that, for example when i read 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' many, many years ago and hadn't yet been stung. I honestly hope people who have such delusional thoughts don't pay with their lives one day.
I needed to read this book. Having become slightly disillusioned and bored with sobriety recently and tormented with emotional pain that i thought i had got rid of for good, thoughts had been creeping into my mind of going back out there and having another go at the merry dance. Having just finished the last page and taken a momentary glance at my seven year old daughter who is sprawled all over me on the sofa, innocently watching kids tv and kicking me in the ribs, i've decided i'll take emotional pain any minute of the day thank you very much. Its a gift compared to the alternative.
October 22, 2019
Öncelikle belirtmeliyim ki verdiğim tek yıldız kitabın değerini değil benim beğenimi gösteriyor. Kitap eminim çok daha fazlasını hak ediyordur. Yeraltı edebiyatına alışamadım, argo ve küfürleriyle günlük konuşma dilini yeraltı jargonunda anlatmanın yolunun roman olmadığı kanısındayım. Romanda birtakım hususlar boşlukta duruyor gibi sanki. Senaryo ile filmini yapmak çok daha uygun olur, Döğüş Klübü'nde olduğu gibi. Hızlı okuma ile bitirdiğimi hatta bazı bölümleri (uyuşturucu partileri gibi) birbirinin kopyası gibi gördüğümden okurmuş gibi yaptığımı da itiraf ediyorum. Kitap, Amerikan Rüyası'nın arka planını, kötü yüzünü gösteriyor. Belki iyi bir roman ama benim gibi Hemingway, Steinbeck, Orwell, Zweig, J.London hayranı bir okura hitap etmiyor.
May 19, 2020
” Certo che il tempus fugit, eh? A volte. A volte invece sembra immobile. Come stare rinchiusi dentro a un sacco senza poter uscire e c'è qualcuno che da fuori continua a ripeterti che col tempo andrà meglio solo che il tempo invece sembra non passare mai e se ne sta lì a ridere di te e del tuo dolore...
Non potendo lavorare a causa di gravi problemi di salute, pare che Hubert Selby Jr abbia detto:
«Conosco l'alfabeto. Forse potrei essere uno scrittore.»
E in effetti, l’alfabeto lo conosceva.
Forse un po’ meno i segni d’interpunzione ma in questo romanzo la loro mancanza è adeguata ad un ritmo incalzante che parte in quinta già dall’avvio:
” Harry che chiude sua madre nello sgabuzzino. Harold. Ti prego. Non la tv un'altra volta. Ok, ok, Harry che riapre la porta, allora piantala di darmi in testa. Che si muove per raggiungere il televisore dall'altra parte della stanza. E non mi rompere. Che strappa via la spina dalla presa e stacca l'antenna a V. Sara che s'infila di nuovo nello sgabuzzino e si chiude dentro. Harry che per un attimo resta a fissare la porta. Come ti pare, allora, stacci pure. Che comincia a spingere il televisore col carrello e tutto, il carrello che si blocca di scatto, la tv che a momenti ruzzola a terra. E ora che cazzo c'è? Harry che guarda giù e vede una catena da bici che va da un anello di acciaio al lato del televisore al termosifone.”
Ben presto si capisce che questo è un inferno dantesco.
Lo scatto, la raffica di azioni e frasi che si attorcigliano tra loro non sono postazioni di lancio verso la vetta ma vortici che conducono alla discesa violenta.
Da un lato c'è Harry assieme all’amata Marion e l’amico di una vita Tyrone C.
Sull'altro fronte c'è Sara: sua madre.
Due storie che procedono in modo parallelo facendosi risucchiare dall’illusione di un sogno che sfugge.
Questo è un flusso d’incoscienza:
ossessioni,
solitudine,
paure.
Tutto si traduce nei corpi che si disfano e vengono manipolati.
Sono volutamente ermetica in questo mio commento perché è un romanzo che va letto e non raccontato e analizzato.
Forte e doloroso…
” Harry e Marion si sentono interi. Si sentono uniti. Anche se sono ancora sul divano, si sentono parte della vastità del cielo e delle stelle e della luna. Sono in cima a una collina e un venticello leggero fa ondeggiare delicatamente i capelli di Marion; e camminano attraverso un bosco pieno di luce e un prato ricoperto di fiori e si sentono liberi come uccelli che volano in cielo cinguettando e cantando e la notte ha un tepore rassicurante mentre la luce tenue che filtra dalle tendine continua a relegare l'oscurità in un angolo insieme alle ombre, e anche loro, che si tengono stretti e si baciano, relegano nell'angolo la reciproca oscurità, credendo l'uno nella luce dell'altra, l'uno nei sogni dell'altra.”
Non potendo lavorare a causa di gravi problemi di salute, pare che Hubert Selby Jr abbia detto:
«Conosco l'alfabeto. Forse potrei essere uno scrittore.»
E in effetti, l’alfabeto lo conosceva.
Forse un po’ meno i segni d’interpunzione ma in questo romanzo la loro mancanza è adeguata ad un ritmo incalzante che parte in quinta già dall’avvio:
” Harry che chiude sua madre nello sgabuzzino. Harold. Ti prego. Non la tv un'altra volta. Ok, ok, Harry che riapre la porta, allora piantala di darmi in testa. Che si muove per raggiungere il televisore dall'altra parte della stanza. E non mi rompere. Che strappa via la spina dalla presa e stacca l'antenna a V. Sara che s'infila di nuovo nello sgabuzzino e si chiude dentro. Harry che per un attimo resta a fissare la porta. Come ti pare, allora, stacci pure. Che comincia a spingere il televisore col carrello e tutto, il carrello che si blocca di scatto, la tv che a momenti ruzzola a terra. E ora che cazzo c'è? Harry che guarda giù e vede una catena da bici che va da un anello di acciaio al lato del televisore al termosifone.”
Ben presto si capisce che questo è un inferno dantesco.
Lo scatto, la raffica di azioni e frasi che si attorcigliano tra loro non sono postazioni di lancio verso la vetta ma vortici che conducono alla discesa violenta.
Da un lato c'è Harry assieme all’amata Marion e l’amico di una vita Tyrone C.
Sull'altro fronte c'è Sara: sua madre.
Due storie che procedono in modo parallelo facendosi risucchiare dall’illusione di un sogno che sfugge.
Questo è un flusso d’incoscienza:
ossessioni,
solitudine,
paure.
Tutto si traduce nei corpi che si disfano e vengono manipolati.
Sono volutamente ermetica in questo mio commento perché è un romanzo che va letto e non raccontato e analizzato.
Forte e doloroso…
” Harry e Marion si sentono interi. Si sentono uniti. Anche se sono ancora sul divano, si sentono parte della vastità del cielo e delle stelle e della luna. Sono in cima a una collina e un venticello leggero fa ondeggiare delicatamente i capelli di Marion; e camminano attraverso un bosco pieno di luce e un prato ricoperto di fiori e si sentono liberi come uccelli che volano in cielo cinguettando e cantando e la notte ha un tepore rassicurante mentre la luce tenue che filtra dalle tendine continua a relegare l'oscurità in un angolo insieme alle ombre, e anche loro, che si tengono stretti e si baciano, relegano nell'angolo la reciproca oscurità, credendo l'uno nella luce dell'altra, l'uno nei sogni dell'altra.”
November 8, 2014
I thought this book was a lot like the movie, dark, depressing and bleak!
This is the story of two types of drug addiction that takes place in Coney Island NY in the 1970's. One of the character is a young hoodlum who gets hooked on heroin and the other is a middle aged widow that gets hooked on pills (interestingly enough they are mother and son). I think at one point diet pills were pretty much like legalized speed but a doctor wrote the prescription, so what could be wrong, right? Turns out plenty.
Both mother and son progressively sink deeper and deeper in to drug addiction with disastrous results. I liked how the author told the story of addiction from two very different viewpoints, it was also interesting to read about the heroin subculture in NYC at that time.
Well written and a real good read!
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