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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
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
La idea buenísima. La ejecución horrible.
Llegué a Requiem por un Sueño por la fama de la película y por la ilusión de volver a encontrarme un libro como Trainspotting. ¿Qué me he encontrado? Una historia escrita de una forma muy enrevesada para no contar nada, porque lo que cuenta y como lo cuenta no da la sensación de avanzar una trama, solo es dar vueltas sobre una retórica muy extensa que hace que pierdas interés en el mensaje de que intentar algo por la vía rápida para vivir el gran sueño americano te destroza.
Ojalá la forma en que está escrito hubiese sido otra porque seguramente habría disfrutado mucho más el libro.
Llegué a Requiem por un Sueño por la fama de la película y por la ilusión de volver a encontrarme un libro como Trainspotting. ¿Qué me he encontrado? Una historia escrita de una forma muy enrevesada para no contar nada, porque lo que cuenta y como lo cuenta no da la sensación de avanzar una trama, solo es dar vueltas sobre una retórica muy extensa que hace que pierdas interés en el mensaje de que intentar algo por la vía rápida para vivir el gran sueño americano te destroza.
Ojalá la forma en que está escrito hubiese sido otra porque seguramente habría disfrutado mucho más el libro.
How can something so desperately sad also be so achingly beautiful? Possibly it’s the depression, but I am happy that I have a perspective that allowed me to read and enjoy this book.
The writing was extremely dense at first…there is a single paragraph in the first or second “chapter” that goes on for 5 entire pages and Selby never uses quotes to let you know who is speaking. But I could understand the reason behind doing this was to replicate an inner monologue as well as to create some of the tension, chaos, and anxiety that the characters feel. I was able to get into the flow quickly and got lost in the characters’ struggles. And by God, they are some of the same struggles we’re still facing today. Loneliness, addiction, desperation…can we ever escape the fear that comes with the fact that we all die alone?
I only didn’t rate this 5 stars because I got extremely tired of the way Tyrone spoke, which came across as an Uncle Tom caricature and not a real person in 1970s New York to me.
The writing was extremely dense at first…there is a single paragraph in the first or second “chapter” that goes on for 5 entire pages and Selby never uses quotes to let you know who is speaking. But I could understand the reason behind doing this was to replicate an inner monologue as well as to create some of the tension, chaos, and anxiety that the characters feel. I was able to get into the flow quickly and got lost in the characters’ struggles. And by God, they are some of the same struggles we’re still facing today. Loneliness, addiction, desperation…can we ever escape the fear that comes with the fact that we all die alone?
I only didn’t rate this 5 stars because I got extremely tired of the way Tyrone spoke, which came across as an Uncle Tom caricature and not a real person in 1970s New York to me.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This work has unquestionably found a place on my greatest books of all time list (as does the movie adaptation by Darron Aronovsky on my respective greatest films list). Trying to identify all of the things that make this novel so deeply moving and revealing and intimate and harrowing and monumental would be too difficult, and I’d be in constant fear of leaving something vitally important out. Selby doesn’t pull his punches, but when he does take a swing it’s never for mere shock value or exhibitionism. At its heart, this book is about examining with eyes wide open the strangulation of beauty, and the violent extinguishing of some kind of indescribable light within a person. It is indeed, profoundly so, a requiem for a dream.
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
challenging
dark
tense
fast-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
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book hurts even more than the movie because you can hear all their thoughts of how much hope they have for their futures and just watch it slowly disintegrate
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use
dark
sad
medium-paced