The Room - Softcover

Hubert Selby Jr

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714530387 ISBN 13: 9780714530383

Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

Locked away in his remand cell, a small-time criminal surrenders himself to sadistic fantasies of hatred and despair. This follow-up to Selby's best-selling cult classic, Last Exit to Brooklyn, offers a bleakly claustrophobic descent into the mind of a man trapped inside a pitiless world, cut off from all love and compassion. Violent, sickening and disturbed, The Room is an unforgettable and deeply shocking novel by one of America's most visionary writers.

About this title

Review:

Selby's best book (The TLS)

A terrifying journey into the darkest corners of the psyche (Guardian)

Selby deploys street slang, common speech, argot and scatology to create a high poetic art...it seems to derive from the greatest American poetry--Whitman, Pound, Williams, and Olson (The Nation)

One must be grateful to Selby for his fatal vision and strong, original talent (Newsweek)

'Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists ... to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America.' (New York Times Book Review)

It's absolutely horrific ... but just about the most powerful novel I've ever read (The Times)

About the Author:

Hubert Selby, Jr. was born in Brooklyn in 1928. At the age of 15, he dropped out of school and went to sea with the merchant marines. While at sea he was diagnosed with lung disease. With no other way to make a living, he decided to try writing: 'I knew the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer.' In 1964 he completed his first book, Last Exit to Brooklyn, which has since become a cult classic. In 1966, it was the subject of an obscenity trial in the UK. His other books include The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream, Song of the Silent Snow, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period. In 2000, Requiem for a Dream starred Jared Leto and Ellen Burstyn and was directed by Darren Aronofsky. Hubert Selby Jr died in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California in April 2004.

About this edition

• Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0714530387
• ISBN 13: 9780714530383
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288