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kkelrodd 's review for:
Requiem for a Dream
by Hubert Selby Jr.
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.