Banned Books discussion

Has anybody read and of Selby Jr.s work? I know that 'Last Exit To Brooklyn' was successfully banned in Italy and it went to trial in the UK.

I tried to look up some of Selby's work in my local library but discovered to my disbelief that he simply didn't exist on their catalogue. What a bummer.

haha, amendment, he does exist on the catalogue. But he's never showed up in the libraries I've visited. You have to request him in.

Let's see when 'Last Exit' arrives!

Excellent question. You sparked my curiosity so I checked our library system in King County (Seattle's county but excluding Seattle itself--it's a bigger library system than Seattle's). They carry four different novels, including Last Exit to Brooklyn. I also checked the Seattle Public Library and they have 3 of the novels. So at least in this little corner of America we're not totally backwards. :) Where is your library?

I haven't read any of his works but I've heard good things about Last Exit.

Bummer. I'm still waiting for my Hubert Selby book to come through. Went up to the lib the other day and they said a copy was missing blah blah, yeah right.

I'm from London, the outskirts. The library here isn't very big. Plus they're moving/ renovating so everything is a bit out of place. So I guess I should be patient lol! 'Last Exit' is supposed to be one of his best works. But 'The Room' is the one I want to read first. He had a special way of writing - he didn't use punctuation or anything so I'm wondering how that will affect me as a reader.

I have most (or all) of his books. I like his work, though his style takes some getting used to.

Did you know that Requiem For A Dream is also a Selby novel? It was made into a really good movie in the nineties.

Stephanie wrote: "Did you know that Requiem For A Dream is also a Selby novel?"

Woah. Loved the movie. Gonna get a few of these books. Thanks for the recomendation!

Selby style sound interesting ! Is there anyone who can tell me more about him?

Selby is amazing! in my humble opinion. I found out about him 3 or 4 years ago & had already seen Requiem for a Dream long before I knew it was his book. The movie is great, have yet to read the book. If I were a creative writing teacher or someone trying to give advice I would say mimicking his style is a death sentence. His work is like Naked Lunch, it is too original & could never be duplicated unless you want to just plagiarize a style & suffer the consequences of being forever known as a hack. Last Exit to Brooklyn is supposed to be a grotesque tale of crazy life in that city but I guess because I'm not easily shocked I just found it downright entertaining. Highly recommend all of his work. It is not light-hearted literature though, so if you want fluff & upbeat reading, look elsewhere.