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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
3.5 Stars.
I really wanted to love it, but didn't. The story is incredible. I had seen the movie first, many times, which I think hurt my experience of reading the book a bit because I already knew what the outcome was. The movie also stays very true to the book, which is always a nice surprise.
My reason for not loving it? The writing style. I'm just not wired to want to read a wall of text with very little punctuation (including not a single set of quotes throughout). At the time it was written, maybe it was 'daring' or 'hip' or 'anti-establishment'. But to me, it seems disrespectful to the reader, lazy and distracts from a great story. A writer can let the words on the page have an impact by using distinct voices for his characters (which Selby does very well) and still use a bit of formatting so it doesn't read like a convoluted mess.
I'm sure my opinion isn't a popular one, and I can understand that. I think it's a writing style you either love or hate. I hated it.
I really wanted to love it, but didn't. The story is incredible. I had seen the movie first, many times, which I think hurt my experience of reading the book a bit because I already knew what the outcome was. The movie also stays very true to the book, which is always a nice surprise.
My reason for not loving it? The writing style. I'm just not wired to want to read a wall of text with very little punctuation (including not a single set of quotes throughout). At the time it was written, maybe it was 'daring' or 'hip' or 'anti-establishment'. But to me, it seems disrespectful to the reader, lazy and distracts from a great story. A writer can let the words on the page have an impact by using distinct voices for his characters (which Selby does very well) and still use a bit of formatting so it doesn't read like a convoluted mess.
I'm sure my opinion isn't a popular one, and I can understand that. I think it's a writing style you either love or hate. I hated it.
OMG I loved this book. I read it twice. It says a ton about human psychology and how humans can be a lot weaker than they really think they are. Hubert Selby Jr. Is a great story teller. A must read if you like horror or creepy stories
I don't love the writing style. I don't love the characters. But the meaning behind the writing got me in the feels.
The addictions, the hallucinations, the dissociation....it's hard to see, but it's supposed to be. Everyone had a different drug of choice and it's making all their lives go to shit.
Sara started out hopeful and motivated. She flew over the cuckoos nest in a psych ward. Harry ends up in the hospital, Marion is permanently traumatized, and Tyrone is in prison. None of them fulfilled their dreams. None of them will ever be the same or recover. Each character had their own drug of choice, and their own ending... but result for all of them is the same.
The addictions, the hallucinations, the dissociation....it's hard to see, but it's supposed to be. Everyone had a different drug of choice and it's making all their lives go to shit.
Sara started out hopeful and motivated. She flew over the cuckoos nest in a psych ward. Harry ends up in the hospital, Marion is permanently traumatized, and Tyrone is in prison. None of them fulfilled their dreams. None of them will ever be the same or recover. Each character had their own drug of choice, and their own ending... but result for all of them is the same.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5/5
it took a bit to get used to the unconventional writing style, but it eventually began to match the feelings and events happening throughout the story and wasn't very distracting.
it felt like there was a huge change in the writing style between the first and second half of the book, which was for the better but was still a noticeable shift.
it took a bit to get used to the unconventional writing style, but it eventually began to match the feelings and events happening throughout the story and wasn't very distracting.
it felt like there was a huge change in the writing style between the first and second half of the book, which was for the better but was still a noticeable shift.
4.5 stars
Requiem for a Dream is one of my favourite movies and I’ve been meaning to read the source book forever. I received an ALC from NetGalley, this is my honest review.
Requiem for a Dream follows a group of people whose lives are irrevocably damaged by drugs. Three young addicts will do anything to get their next hit, and one of their widowed mothers falls victim to a reckless doctor’s prescription. Set across the landscape of a city transformed into a Heroin wasteland, this book poses the question, how far is too far?
The characters are all explored deeply but you will still find yourself shocked at times, even though each new rock bottom feels inevitable. The author’s descriptions are consistently vivid and at times induced a visceral reaction.
I loved the narration!! I’m glad I listening to this book rather than read it because it 100% improved the overall experience. The character voices were great and it really worked with the sections of text that were scattered trains of thought.
Requiem for a Dream is one of my favourite movies and I’ve been meaning to read the source book forever. I received an ALC from NetGalley, this is my honest review.
Requiem for a Dream follows a group of people whose lives are irrevocably damaged by drugs. Three young addicts will do anything to get their next hit, and one of their widowed mothers falls victim to a reckless doctor’s prescription. Set across the landscape of a city transformed into a Heroin wasteland, this book poses the question, how far is too far?
The characters are all explored deeply but you will still find yourself shocked at times, even though each new rock bottom feels inevitable. The author’s descriptions are consistently vivid and at times induced a visceral reaction.
I loved the narration!! I’m glad I listening to this book rather than read it because it 100% improved the overall experience. The character voices were great and it really worked with the sections of text that were scattered trains of thought.
4.5 stars
Ive read some soul/crushing novels and seen some soul/crushing films before, but nothing really destroys you as much as seeing people who could have some chance in the world fading away to nothing. And thats just what Selby sets out to do, and yesery jim does he do it with such devastation and sadness that its hard to honestly read at points. Of course these is somewhat because of the writing style. See, as far as Im aware, Selbys typewriter never had a working quotation marks button, so he just adopted this into his writing style, so its never really clear whose speaking until you start understanding how each character speaks and thinks, so it does take some getting used to, and he does like a good run along sentence, as Im trying to impersonate here, but nowhere to the same level of intelligence as him.
Its a story we all know, the dangers of drug addiction, but there is much more going on under the surface here. Selbys story is not just about drugs, but the nature of addiction itself, and the many forms it can take, case in point being the equally tragic, and sometimes more so, story of Sara Goldfarb, who just wants to be on television, its only reason she has to keep living really, and so falls victim to scams, societal pressure, and anti-depressants and diet pills. No one is seemingly safe from this, I certainly recognized some of my behavior towards things in these characters, although not to anything as damaging as heroin or diet pills, and Selby seems quite haunted by this fact. There is a constant sense of hope, the slight chance that things will get better for the characters, but it never comes, and that/s the trap. By the time your halfway through you know how this story will end, in one form or another, but you hope, you really hope your nightmares are going to come true, and they wont...its worse, much worse.
The really power of this book comes from how brilliantly Selby brings you into the gritty underground of this world, how clearly we are allowed to see whats going on, and even though there is a few stumbles along the way; the language use is a little weird at points, and the slang and viewpoints of some of the characters is a little outdated, the novel is clearly supposed to be set in the modern day, which at the time was 1978, so some bits of it dont age all that well, but if your willing to ignore all of these minor faults youve really found one of the saddest and difficult books to read. Saying that I loved it seems wrong, but it definitely got under my skin, and even made me have to face some of my own inner fears, but if these characters are unable to learn from their sorrow, then we have a chance to learn instead. Calling this a book about drugs doesnt do it justice, its a story about us all, and our failed dreams and shattered hopes.
Also, this review has been quite fun to write as I try to inferiorly replicated Selbys writing style, so I can see why he chooses to keep writing like this...grammer rules be damned!
Ive read some soul/crushing novels and seen some soul/crushing films before, but nothing really destroys you as much as seeing people who could have some chance in the world fading away to nothing. And thats just what Selby sets out to do, and yesery jim does he do it with such devastation and sadness that its hard to honestly read at points. Of course these is somewhat because of the writing style. See, as far as Im aware, Selbys typewriter never had a working quotation marks button, so he just adopted this into his writing style, so its never really clear whose speaking until you start understanding how each character speaks and thinks, so it does take some getting used to, and he does like a good run along sentence, as Im trying to impersonate here, but nowhere to the same level of intelligence as him.
Its a story we all know, the dangers of drug addiction, but there is much more going on under the surface here. Selbys story is not just about drugs, but the nature of addiction itself, and the many forms it can take, case in point being the equally tragic, and sometimes more so, story of Sara Goldfarb, who just wants to be on television, its only reason she has to keep living really, and so falls victim to scams, societal pressure, and anti-depressants and diet pills. No one is seemingly safe from this, I certainly recognized some of my behavior towards things in these characters, although not to anything as damaging as heroin or diet pills, and Selby seems quite haunted by this fact. There is a constant sense of hope, the slight chance that things will get better for the characters, but it never comes, and that/s the trap. By the time your halfway through you know how this story will end, in one form or another, but you hope, you really hope your nightmares are going to come true, and they wont...its worse, much worse.
The really power of this book comes from how brilliantly Selby brings you into the gritty underground of this world, how clearly we are allowed to see whats going on, and even though there is a few stumbles along the way; the language use is a little weird at points, and the slang and viewpoints of some of the characters is a little outdated, the novel is clearly supposed to be set in the modern day, which at the time was 1978, so some bits of it dont age all that well, but if your willing to ignore all of these minor faults youve really found one of the saddest and difficult books to read. Saying that I loved it seems wrong, but it definitely got under my skin, and even made me have to face some of my own inner fears, but if these characters are unable to learn from their sorrow, then we have a chance to learn instead. Calling this a book about drugs doesnt do it justice, its a story about us all, and our failed dreams and shattered hopes.
Also, this review has been quite fun to write as I try to inferiorly replicated Selbys writing style, so I can see why he chooses to keep writing like this...grammer rules be damned!
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes