“I know the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer”. With exactly these words began Hubert Selby’s Jr. career. Hailing from Brooklyn, the novelist decided to change the course of literature, which he actually did when publishing his first novel Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964). “It will explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years”, said Allen Ginsberg about the book, and The New York Times fulfilled his prophecy by recognizing that “Selby’s place is in the front rank of American novelists”, and “to understand Selby’s work is to understand the anguish of America”.
Still, Hubert Selby’s masterpiece is considered to be The Room (1971), a book that the novelist himself was unable to read again for twenty years after writing it. The story is about a nameless criminal which sits alone in a cell, scheming and dreaming a continual fantasy of revenge and retribution. For nearly 300 pages the murderer stews in his own bestial juices. If The Room remain Selby’s favorite novel, Requiem for a Dream (1978) has the favorite opening: “Harry locked his mother in the closet”. It is the most realistic tale about the drug addict ever written. Requiem for a Dream was brought to big screen in 2000 by Darren Aronofsky, with Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly (photo) as main characters.
Selby’s work appeared through the years in Black Mountain Review, Evergreen Review, Provincetown Review, Kulchur, New Directions Annual, Swank, Open City, and other publications. He died in 2004, leaving so many things unsaid.
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