Requiem for a Dream: A Novel

Though dated, it gives the reader an opportunity to witness, first hand, how a life is radically changed by addiction. It is very well written and using the novel as a form, easy to follow the "story" as well as understand the characters.

I read Selby's "Last Exit to Brooklyn" sometime in the 70's and it had a profound influence on me. The characters were bitingly raw and real and the story was riveting. Requiem is good but not great. Perhaps because it is entirely about the never ending quest for three heroin addicts to get high and the obsession of one of the addicts' mother to lose weight. The book is claustrophobic and petty beyond belief. That is the way it is meant to be and Selby does a great job of creating this smothering atmosphere, but it is a hard thing to read page after page. Because of the limited characters and locations, it would make an excellent, if nasty and dark, play.

Superb depiction of the needle and the damage done. I don't doubt it's also a historically accurate account of events. No way out for these tragic characters as the city simply runs out of dope. Of course, these days they give you methadone.

Very Heavy Reading. I once again ordered this for my son, who has had to put it down for a while. Not that it is not a Good Book....he will be back, but he had His Reasons for putting it down Shortly.

Couldn't understand the dialogue between the caricatures. A lot of slang terms we don't have here in good ol Nebraska. lol jk. But yeah i couldn't understand what they where saying to each other. And there was a lot of just weird off the wall stuff for intense the main caricatures are fascinated by picking there noses. Weird. I had to put the book down. The movie is way way way better.

I watched the movie before reading the book and found that they left some scenes out of the book that I found entertaining in the movie. But nonetheless the book was great. The language used can be hard to follow but after the first few pages I got the hang of it. It was a fun read.

It really helps when writers use things like puntuation and capital letters. This book was poorly written and the story was difficult to follow. I finally just deleted it from my kindle. There's probably only been two books in my life that were so bad that I didn't finish them - this was one of them.

Ordered this book because of the movie. I personally could not read it, hated the street dialogue and the gross descriptions of nose picking and etc. Could not get into the characters. Guess I just don't get it.

It really helps when writers use things like puntuation and capital letters. This book was poorly written and the story was difficult to follow. I finally just deleted it from my kindle. There's probably only been two books in my life that were so bad that I didn't finish them - this was one of them.

Ordered this book because of the movie. I personally could not read it, hated the street dialogue and the gross descriptions of nose picking and etc. Could not get into the characters. Guess I just don't get it.

This entire book is written in ghetto/white trash dialect spelled phonetically, with minimal punctuation. I'm sure this "would" be a good book if someone translated it into standard English, but in its current state, it's a pile of unintelligible crap. You can't even tell who's speaking, let alone what they're trying to say.

There are four key characters in `Requiem for a Dream': Sara Goldfarb, a lonely widow who spends her days watching television and eating chocolate; her son Harry; Harry's friend Tyrone C. Love and Harry's girlfriend Marion. These four characters lead us through the depths and despair of addiction.

As the story opens, it's summer in New York City and Harry and Tyrone take Sara's television to the pawn shop. They need the money for drugs. Sara gets her television back - not for the first time - and the reader starts to wonder what will happen next. Sara eats her chocolates, watches television, and worries (sometimes) about Harry. She is lonely without Seymour (her late husband). And then, Sara's phone rings:

`Mrs Goldfarb, this is Lyle Russel of the McDick Corporation.'

Lyle Russel is looking for contestants in game shows and tells Sara that all she needs to do to have a chance to appear on television is fill in a questionnaire. Sara is excited by this, and decides to try to look her best - by losing some weight. Tyrone and Harry are dreaming of getting rich enough to retire: a pound of pure heroin should do it. Tyrone and Harry earn enough money to purchase some drugs and start dealing to people they know. And as the money flows in, Marion and Harry dream of opening a business of their own one day. Elusive things, dreams.

`It wasn't that they couldn't stop using, it was just that this wasn't the time. They had too much to do and they weren't feeling well.'

Time passes, winter arrives, and things start to come apart. Sara's diet hasn't been successful, but one of her neighbours recommends a doctor who prescribes diet pills. Sara becomes addicted, and the McDick Corporation still hasn't contacted her. Meantime, Harry, Tyrone and Marion's heroin supply dries up just as their need becomes greater. And as Harry, Tyrone and Marion become increasingly more desperate for heroin, their dreams disappear and they sink to new depths. No, the consequences of addiction can't happen to them.

`But that woman - I have told you I don't care about that woman. Even if you are correct in your diagnosis and assumptions, the worst that can happen is that she will have a few unnecessary shock treatments.'

It's Sara I feel sorriest for. She is not aware of the dangers of the diet pills, and by the time help is sought the only doctor who tries to treat her as an individual is overridden by other doctors who see symptoms rather than a person. Sara becomes trapped. The other three each face different consequences. There are no happy endings here.
`And let me remind you of something doctor ... harmony breeds efficiency. Good morning.'

This is a difficult novel to read, both because of the stream of consciousness style of writing and the painful depiction of addiction and its consequences. Each of the characters is chasing a dream, an illusion and each will be disappointed. The reader can see it happening, can feel the pain at times, but can do nothing to intervene. It's unsettling, and it's hard to put down this story and walk away.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Requiem for a Dream charts a few, terrible months in the lives of a small circle of friends and family in New York in the 1970's, all of whom are led into addiction by their own hopes for fulfillment and wholeness. Harry Goldfarb, his friend Tyrone C. Love, and his intelligent, artistic girlfriend Marion dream of making it big by selling heroin, only to become paralyzed by apathy, self-loathing, and dependence on the drugs that once seemed to be their ticket to success. Meanwhile, Harry's lonely, widowed mother Sara comforts herself with chocolate and endless television. When a chance phone call seems to promise her an appearance on one of her beloved television shows, she becomes reinvigorated by the conviction that she must lose weight, precipitating an obsessive cycle of dependence on diet pills.

Requiem for a Dream is one of the most grueling, brutal films I've seen, and for this reason I found myself reluctant to break into the novel. Once you begin, however, you feel a sense of commitment to the characters, an obligation to hear their stories out and follow them to the end, despite the sense of impending doom that pervades the novel from the very beginning.

Selby writes no quotation marks or apostrophes, few commas, and fewer paragraph breaks, so that different characters' perspectives rush together in a margin-to-margin stream of thoughts and conversation. It took me a while to accustom myself to this packed flow, but once I did, I found it easy to plug myself into the characters' perspectives each time I picked the book up again. I really appreciated how effectively Selby was able to distinguish characters' voices by their speech patterns and accents, and how his style communicated their rapid-fire, desperate dialogue.

The narration is perceptive and unsparing in its observation, but does not judge. The psychology of addiction is conveyed frighteningly well; you can see how easy it can become to substitute chemical satisfaction when real happiness and wholeness seem ungraspable. I was a little warier of how Selby treats Mrs. Goldfarb's eventual fate, because I don't know how realistic it is, but it is an effectively dramatic representation of how the elderly, in particular, can become victims of the medical system and societal neglect.

I did have one minor complaint about the book, in that I was troubled that the young female characters (Marion, Tyrone's girlfriend Alice) often seemed to exist in order to be beautiful and provide sex for their boyfriends. However, because Marion and Sara were otherwise fully-developed voices and characters, I was satisfied overall by Selby's treatment of the female characters.

As some have noted, Harry, Marion, and Tyrone's story is a more conventional narrative of drug dependence, but the inclusion of Sara's story broadens the book's focus. The book at its most basic level is not about drug addiction, but about the danger of devoting oneself entirely to false dreams. Sara is herself aware of this, but cannot escape the trap that she creates for herself in her desperation. As she tells Harry in one of the book's most heartbreaking scenes, she knows that it's not really about her appearing on television in a red dress and gold shoes, but about the promise of renewed youth and hopes, the fulfillment of her need to feel special and loved again. For this reason, I think it would be really interesting to read Requiem in tandem with The Great Gatsby, as both deal with the failure and innate falsity of the American Dream. Overall, Requiem is tightly constructed and brilliantly and compassionately observed. It is also horrifying and bleak - yet rewarding in the deep human compassion that it displays and inspires.

Review originally posted at theblackletters.net.

The definition of the word `requiem' is a musical service or hymn in honor of the dead. How fittingly that word rests with the subject matter of this novel. `Requiem for a Dream' is just that, a musical hymn in honor of those crushed and shattered dreams. When reading Selby's phenomenal (and I mean that in the most extreme sense of the word) novel about abolished hope and sheer desperation the reader is forced to face the ugly truth about our horrific society.

You ever read that novel or watch that film that just eats away at the pit of your stomach and pains you to your very core? You ever struggle to turn the page or fight to watch the screen because the onslaught of negativity is picking away at your spirit and bringing you to a dark and lonely place you never wished to visit? That is the feeling experienced when reading (or subsequently watching the Aronofsky film adaptation) this novel.

The novel opens by introducing us to four people. We have Sara, an older Jewish woman who lives for television. The opening scene depicts her son Harry, strung out as usual, stealing her television to pawn it for money in order to get his next hit. Harry also has a girlfriend Marion as well as a best friend Tyrone C. Love. The three of them enjoy a nice taste of heroin every now and again and will do just about anything to get it. Sara dreams of one day being on television, and when she gets to opportunity she grabs it by the horns. She is convinced to lose enough weight to fit into her favorite red dress, the one she wore to Harry's bar mitzvah. This leads her to diet pills which she quickly and dangerously forms an addiction to. Harry and Marion on the other hand begin to develop a plan to buy and sell heroin for a profit, that way they can one day by that little coffee shop and make a life for themselves. This little plan involves Tyrone as well, and as the dope starts pouring in, their idea of a small taste begins to grow until they can't stomach the thought of selling any of it but feel compelled to keep all of it for themselves.

The novel brilliantly portrays the mind of an addict; the `I'll never get that bad, I can stop whenever I want to' mentality that cripples the mind and fortifies the very essence of the domination of the soul. All four of these individuals are taken over and beaten down by the disease that is addiction. There is a scene where Tyrone is arrested and spends some time in the jail cell with an elderly addict, a man who is so far gone Tyrone is disgusted by him. Tyrone is determined never to be that man, never to become that dependant on the taste, but the first thing Tyrone does when he gets out is cop him that taste. He doesn't realize that he is already there.

The novel, like I mentioned, is horribly depressing and utterly frustrating, especially as the novel comes to a close and everything begins to spiral into oblivion. As we watch Sara, Harry, Marion and Tyrone's lives completely fall apart in a gradual yet perpetual tumble towards rock bottom we are left with the bitter taste of pain and misery in the back of our throats. Experiencing Sara's mental deterioration at the hands of the pill; watching Marion degrade herself to escape the sick feeling of withdrawals; seeing Harry cast aside his own well being in order to keep that high; watching Tyrone come to realize he is no better than the men he despises; all of this eats at our very being and transports us to a place unlike any we've ever been.

Like the movie, the novel excels when focusing on the female characters. Sara and Marion are by far the most sympathetic and interesting characters in the novel; with that said they are also the most depressing and utterly devastating to read about. Their final outcome is far from pretty and makes the reader feel helpless and alone; much like these characters.

`Requiem for a Dream' is far from pretty. It is dirty, gritty and at times unbearable; but there is no denying that it is a masterpiece; literature at its finest. Hubert Selby Jr. is a deeply controlled and phenomenally capable writer who understands the appropriate darkness of his subject; an author who takes something so terrible, so bleak and painful and makes it quite frankly one of the most important novels ever penned. In my humble opinion this is the type of novel that should be mandatory reading at any substance abuse rehabilitation center. After reading this grisly novel (and of course watching the equally grisly film) I could never even stomach the idea of drug use. In a world that glamorizes any and everything harmful to the soul, `Requiem for a Dream' stands apart as a very real depiction of all you stand to lose.

I have already seen the movie version of this novel (which was fantastic in its own right) so I knew what I was getting myself into when I got this. Now, this is one of those few books that after reading it, will make you stop and seriously evaluate your own dreams and goals in life. If you don't like depressing, tragic and realistic stories without any type of happy ending that involves lonely, pathetic, self destructive people in bleak and hopeless atmospheres and situations, than STAY FAR AWAY! After finishing this book I wanted to cry. But it was still an excellent read. I probably will never read it again. Highly recommended though.

I read Hubert Selby Jr's other classic novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn" a few years ago and struggled with it, so it was with a little doubt in the back of my mind that I cracked open this book. I shouldn't have been concerned because I found this to be an outstanding novel that delved deep into the dark places and although it was decidedly uncomfortable reading at times it was also utterly compelling.

Without spoiling anything, the basic outline of the plot is that 4 individuals pursue their individual dreams during a New York summer only to watch those dreams unravel as they each slip further and further into desperation as a result of their respective addictions. By the end of the novel they have all suffered personal humiliation and degradation - there is no requiem for any dreams anywhere in sight.

What makes their demise fascinating is how their addictions creep up on them inch by inch without them seeming to notice or care. Despite the growing evidence that their dreams were actually getting further and further away and that their lives were falling apart around them, none of the characters actually seemed to care.

This novel reminded me of another American classic - "The Beautiful and Damned". That is also a tale about the ruin caused by addiction and how lives can quickly and easily slide away into pathetic humiliation and ruin.

Not a feel good novel but well worth a read.

The film version of "Requiem for a Dream" is what aroused my curiosity in this novel that I had never seen on a library shelf prior to the small release of Darren Aronofsky's masterful motion picture. But now the movie tie-in paperback is flying off shelves thanks to word of mouth about the film, and for good reason: Hubert Selby, Jr. has written an astonishingly accurate portrayal of a failed search for the American Dream. He does this in the form of drug addiction, and he calls it exactly what it is, a disease. And it's a terrible epidemic that rips the lives of four people completely to shreds, causing devastating, heartbreaking, irreparable damage.
Having a sort of off-hand experience with drug addiction myself, I was very absorbed by the way Selby structured his novel, cramming the dialogue into the paragraphs (some of the them endless) without quotes to denote separate speakers. It's a form of writing I'd never seen before, but it aids the book perfectly, giving it the jumbled tone of a strung out addict gasping for breath at every word, almost totally incoherent. You get used to it after a while, and it makes for a disturbing experience as we accompany Harry, Marion, and Tyrone on their downward spiral to becoming dope fiends; and the most heartbreaking story of Sara Goldfarb's addiction to diet pills. All the while in search for that great fabled place where no hassles exist and all is approval, where safety exists in love, and the whole world loves you.
This was heralded as one of the great American novels of the twentieth century. I think it is. It's a detailed portrait of addiction from the ground up, a shockingly well-developed character study of all four main characters, and a message piece as well. This is the stuff of great, influencial fiction. More people should be turning off their reruns of "Friends" and reading books like this. It's an infinitely more useful way to spend your time.

First off, I feel bad for anyone leaving a review after only reading a couple of pages, many amazing books start out in a similar pace. Almost all of them are worth it. Moby Dick is not an easy read but you feel incredible when you finish that masterpiece.

On to the review

I finished this book a few hours ago and can't stop thinking about it, the book runs a familiar narrative but the style of writing and the shear pain of the train running off the tracks will stick with you for sometime.

This book is excellent.
Howard Selby is a wonderful writer. <i>Requiem for a Dream</i> is intricately written in dialogue. This is at first difficult to get used to. The general lack of compulsatory punctuation also attributes to this. Selby is a master at recreating the pain of his dreamers.
I read it after I saw the movie, and though reading it was not as strong as the images on the screen, I was still deeply affected.
The predicament of Sara most moved me. I found myself crying in horror and in empathy near the end of the book: not wanting to read on, yet feeling compelled to read on, as if her situation would turn around.
This book explores drugs and dreams in all aspects of the social sphere. Black & White, Male & Female, Rich & Poor, The Young & the Old, etc. It explains how drug abuse, no matter how innocent, can destroy anyone, from an old woman to a rich young girl.
Each person in the book ends up doing things that in the beginning they abhorred of other addicts. Each of them has a dream, which they hope to obtain through their drug use, yet each falters differently.
I can especially associate with Marion. She is a girl who is better off and dreams of running a coffee house and doing something creative with her sketching/photography talent. However, she sits around dreaming of her ideas, yet never goes out an accomplishes anything. Everytime she picks up her paintbrush, her inspiration seems to falter and she resorts to dreaming.
Her fate, in my opinion, (along with Tyrones) is the least brutal than that of the Goldfarbs.
READ THIS BOOK, SEE THE MOVIE, you wont regret it.
I have also reviewed the movie if you are interested in reading that. i can be found at [email protected].

Hubert Selby Jr. does not write in a conventional style. His writing is intense, fierce, and uncompromising. Requiem For a Dream is a book that starts out sad and gets worse. There is an unexplainable feeling of terror and heartache that permeates every action taken by the characters as they spiral continuously downward.
True, it is the story of heroin addicts, trying their hardest to fool themselves into thinking that they aren't addicted, that they can make it big and live the easy life. But the book works in other ways. It is designed to make us examine our own lives and the smaller things we are addicted to. Food, dreams, and other intangibles that destroy us if we let them take over our lives instead of actually living.
This book is a terrifying call to "seize the day". In the greatest sense, it is a beautiful novel that will not just touch you, but shake you and rattle you and teach you more than you were prepared to learn.

Most critics seem to focus on the subject matter when discussing Requiem. But I really think the heart of the book lies in its characters and each one's pursuit of some sort of fractured American dream.

I found the book infinitely more disturbing than the movie because it's so much more pleasing at the same time. Addiction is made so seductive. The characters, in their speech and mannerisms and thoughts, are so human, alive, that you want to get close to them and follow them--straight past the Gates of Hell. I remember finding the movie very disturbing on a visual level, but with the book the images didn't bother me until the final third (Which brings up Selby's simple but powerful use of classic structure: The first third introducing us to these interesting and oh so human characters, who we watch try to achieve something and then it's a fiery descent down the home stretch--the book seems to work it's way from the internal to the external in some odd way, so that we follow dreams until their consequences, nightmares, are screaming all around us.). And I was just amazed by Selby's voice. It's so warm, real, raw, off the cuff, confident. Here's a man who really lived, knew what he was talking about and didn't have to dress anything up to make it interesting or come across as 'authentic.' I know he worked for years finding his voice, but once he found it it really sang clear and true. Quite an achievement. As far as I can see he's in league with a handful of others--Celine, Miller, Genet, Cendrars, Bukowski, Algren, Artaud, some others I'm missing--who combined eloquence and mastery with a real from-the-gut approach. He's one of a few truly unique voices cut from his own experience rather than a reaction to the canon. I can't wait to read more.

I know there are already so many positive reviews for this book, but I have to write a short one. It is easily my favorite book of all time. When I saw the movie, I loved it even though some things weren't very clear. The book not only cleared up all those things, but had such remarkable character development. All the characters felt like people I'd known. The way they completely lose themselves to drugs (and not just heroin) was amazingly realistic. My heart bled for the mom. This book really shows the dependency people develop on drugs, as well as the gradual process that makes so many of these people believe they don't have a problem. All I can say about this book is it is amazing, and I wish everyone could read it and take it's message with them forever. It really is a work of art, and I could never properly express in words how well-written and beautiful it is in the ugliest, saddest way.

I actually came to read this book by stumbling across it on this page. I was searching for something else when I came across a link for this book. I have read Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr, I enjoyed it but didn't think it was spectacular. So when I read some of the other reviews for this book I thought maybe this was being hyped up a little......Boy was I wrong!!
This is an incredible novel.
The characterisation is as powerful as in any novel I can remember. The book is based around three characters, their dreams and their addictions. It starts off quite gently - fairly standard scene setting with drug use and associated culture and just as I was thinking this was going to be only an average novel....BANG! It really kicks in! You all of a suddenly realise how absorbed in their world you are, how much you care about these characters and how much you want them to achieve their dreams.
But Selby shows masterfully, how addiction removes choice from your life, how, because of addiction, dreams will never be achieved and how you will even stop caring about these dreams. The title of the book says it all.
Of the three main characters, Sarah's descent is the most frightening. It shows so clearly how closing your eyes and dreaming can be almost as destructive as addiction itself.
This is not for the faint hearted - I felt emotionally exhausted and a little disturbed when I had finished this, but what a book!

Hubert Selby's 1978 novel "Requiem for a Dream" must certainly rank as one of the most effective depictions of addiction ever written. A critically acclaimed film of the same name, released in 2000 and directed by Darren Aronofsky, has brought more attention to the novel. Although I have yet to see the film, I decided to read the book before watching the movie because I wanted to know what dark visions await me when I finally slide that DVD into the player. If the story is any indication, the film promises a devastating experience. This is not a sunshine and smiles book. It is an unflinching look at addiction and its consequences.
There are four central characters in "Requiem for a Dream." There is Sara Goldfarb, a lonely widow who spends her days watching television, eating chocolate covered cherries, and pining for her late husband Seymour. Harry Goldfarb, Sara's black sheep of a son, is another main character. Harry's circle of acquaintances includes his girlfriend Marion, an intelligent, attractive young girl with a talent for painting but paralyzed with defeatist and self-loathing feelings. Harry's best friend is Tyrone C. Love, a young black man who grew up poor in Harlem but would like to escape from the harsh realities of the street. While minor characters come and go during the course of the story, Selby focuses on these four in an attempt to show the trajectory of doom associated with addiction.
Things do not seem to go very wrong throughout the first part of the book. It is summer in New York City and time for fun and sun. Harry, Tyrone, and Marion spend their time partying with their friends, listening to music, and enjoying each other's company. Sara watches her television shows and eats her candy in blissful peace, only occasionally worrying about what her son Harry is up to. Even better news lands in the laps of our four characters in short order. Sara receives a phone call from a company that finds contestants for game shows, promising her that all she need do is fill out a questionnaire and she will have the chance to appear on television. Sara is of course elated, and decides that if she really has a shot at winning some dough she should probably go on a diet and lose a few pounds in order to look her best. Meanwhile, Tyrone and Harry implement serious plans to obtain a pound of pure heroin so they can get rich and retire from street life. After putting in a grinding week working, the two earn enough money to purchase some drugs and begin dealing to people they know on the street. As the money flies in, Marion and Harry start making plans to someday open their own little business. Even though the three are users and breaking the law by dealing drugs, the future seems bright.
Then winter arrives. Things start to fall apart for Sara, Harry, Marion, and Tyrone. For Sara, an attempt at a diet found in a book does not have the expected payoff. At the recommendation of a neighbor, she goes to a local doctor who prescribes diet pills. Sara's cheery demeanor gradually erodes under the duress of non-reply from the game show company and the slavery of the pills. Harry, Marion, and Tyrone are no better off. Their heroin supply dries up, reducing the trio to scrounging for drugs just as their compulsion grows worse. The deterioration of the four protagonists quickly escalates into a bleak and depressing free fall of pain and degradation.
All four individuals suffer untold horrors by the end of the book, but I think the most pathetic account concerns Sara. Here is a lady who seems harmless, who only wants the best for her son and tries to get through lonely days laced with the pain of losing her husband. She fervently believes she will get on television if she can only muster enough self-control to quit overeating. Her naiveté about the dangers of diet pills leads to disaster merely because she has no conception that there are doctors who are quacks. Sara's innocence makes for a truly poignant story. I had less sympathy for the other three characters. Since none of them are idiots by any means, they knew the dangers of drugs but fell into the old trap of "that can't happen to me." That does not lessen the message of the book, but it does make Sara stand apart.
The writing style of the author is quite unorthodox. There are no chapters, no quotation marks, and sentences that run on for miles. This does make it difficult at first to discern who is talking and to whom, but by the time a few dozen pages pass by it makes little difference in the flow of the story. Selby instills Tyrone with a noticeable street accent, and Sara is often alone when we see the sections dealing with her, so do not worry about the format of the novel.
You cannot escape the theme of addictions in this tale. But what is interesting about it is that Selby equates all excessive compulsions. Heroin usage is as damaging to the soul as is obsessive television viewing or overeating. All have the potential to lead to utter destruction whether you are a young kid roaming the streets or a middle-aged widow who rarely leaves the apartment.
In an introduction to this edition of the book, Selby writes a powerful statement about his tale. He says that "Requiem for a Dream" is about what happens when we concern ourselves more with getting than giving in life, and that the book is an examination of what happens when people chase the illusions of the dream of consumerism and materialism instead of following the truth in their hearts. For a powerful story, look no further than this tale.

I made the crucial mistake of watching the movie before reading the book. While the movie was a masterpiece in itself, I would have to say that the book intruiged me much more from the start of the first page. While Selby's writing is extremely unorthodox, I find that his words are an addiction that is second to none. From the beginning of this novel I was immediately subjected to the life of a drug dealer. The fast money, the gorgeous girlfriend, and the best friend that will always be there through good and bad. While you are able to notice that Harry's mother is a bit strange, it does not bother you until you are farther along in the novel. In the beginning, heroin was merely a recreation for a couple of young adults. Sleep all day, make love to your girlfriend, drop a few dexies and off you go to another night of work hopped up on speed. None of this seems bad, until the weeks begin to wear on. Sara (Harry 's mom) is invited to be a contestant on a TV show. She has found a new reason to live, and decides to go on a diet to shed a couple of punds to fit into her red dress that made her look stunning. Within a week Sara is off the diet, and on amphetamines. A few more weeks go by and you are able to feel her racing heart, her grinding teeth. Its pains you just to read it. All the while Harry, Marion, and Ty are running out of smack. While this had been their recreation in the beginning, it was now becoming a need, an utterly unattainable thirst that they are unable to quench. They turn to scrounging, finding that they will do anything to be comfortably numb. Friendships seem to be broken, love seems to be lost. Junk was the only thought one one's mind. Hubert Selby's rendition of addiction is by far the most gut wrenching thing that I have ever experienced, even if it was just words on pulverized wood. In my mind, this should be in every high schoolers locker in 11th grade. Yes, it will warp their minds, and yes, it will indeed be an experience one will never forget. I thank you Hubert Selby for making this wonderful novel feel so real, and touch so close to home.

l read this novel several years ago & I still get chills when I think about; a true sign of a masterpiece. Just like Hubert Selby's other books Requiem hits you in the stomach & doesn't let up until the last word wraps around your neck leaving you choking for air. I'm not going to bother trying to explain the premise of the story because there isn't one. What I can tell you this novel isn't for people who want to be entertained unless you enjoy feeling hopeless, depressed & sick to your stomach.