Last Exit to Brooklyn

This is a tough read. It explores misogyny, homophobia, racism, abuse, etc. often graphically. It’s very much a meditation on everyday life in poverty and all kinds of deprivation.

I very weirdly happened to read this right after reading Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor. The two books are extremely similar in style, content, and structure. Anyone who loves this book, should check out Hurricane Season, too.

Having said that, I did enjoy this book more. Mainly because while it covers dark content, it doesn’t ask me to take the POV of a rapist during a rape. I struggled with how much of the POV in Hurricane Season involved people doing and thinking awful things. Last Exit to Brooklyn includes a lot more from the marginalized folks. I think /all/ of these characters are ultimately victims of poverty and toxic masculinity, of course, even the aggressors. But I felt like Hurricane Season reveled in it in a way that Selby doesn’t. That’s extremely subjective, so other readers may disagree.

I loved the story The Queen is Dead the most. Her unrequited love for Vinnie, a man who is not worth her attention, is tragic but so relatable.

The first and third story were the most forgettable for me.

I found Selby’s take on the people of the city to be overall compassionate and complex. Not the caricatures you might get in a lot of media (with exceptions).

Since I’m not part of the LGBT community, I don’t have a good sense of how well this aged in terms of the stories The Queen is Dead and Strike. As I said, they struck me as compassionate, but that doesn’t mean it was done well.

Favorite quotes:

moving her to a strange romance where love was born of affection, not sex; wanting to share just this, just these three minutes of the Bird with Vinnie, these three minutes out of space and time and just stand together, perhaps their hands touching, not speaking, yet knowing … just stand complete with and for each other not as man and woman or two men, not as friends or lovers, but as two who love … these three minutes together in a world of beauty, a world where there wasnt even a memory of johns or punks, butch queens or Arthurs, just the now of love …

The day had to start. He walked … sat … smoked … the python still there. Were there no hands on the clock? He smoked … Drew a cup of coffee … It was strong, bitter, yet it passed his mouth and throat without leaving a taste. Only a film. Dont clocks tick anymore? Is even the sun motionless.

Ginger squeezing harder, her face set in a smile, putting all her strength, hatred and loathing into the squeezing of Harrys hand, wallowing in the joy of holding Harry immobile with the bending of her arm, feeling like David, not killing Goliath with one stone from his sling, but slowly twisting him down and down and down with the simple twisting of one massive finger with her small dainty ladylike hand.

VINNIE SAT IN THE LIVING ROOM YELLING OUT TO MARY AND MARY YELLED BACK AND EVERY NOW AND THEN THE KIDS WOULD YELL AND THE BOTH OF THEM WOULD YELL AT THE KIDS AND THE KIDS WOULD YELL LOUDER AND VINNIE AND MARY WOULD SCREAM

Sjömannen Hubert Selby drabbades av svår sjukdom och fick som konsekvens leva resten av sitt liv med funktionsnedsättningar och missbruk. För att inte tala om ett överhängande livshot. Som tur var började han skriva, mest för att det inte fanns så mycket annat för honom att göra. Ett antal romanener och novellsamlingar blev resultatet varav Last Exit To Brooklyn räknas som en klassiker.

I Last Exit skildrar Selby trasproletariatet i ett Brooklyn långt innan gentrifieringen. Stadsdelen befolkas av fyllon, queers, arbetare och prostituerade som, i brist på bättre beskrivning, gör kaos. Oftast slutar det i våld och grova övergrepp. Selby berättar om detta i de löst sammanhållna experimentella noveller som utgör Last Exit.

Som helhet är Last Exit både fruktansvärt arg och rå, och förvånansvärt känslig och kärleksfull. Man skulle kunna kritisera en bok som innehåller så mycket våld och hat, men Selby är varken cyniker eller nihilist. Han bryr sig om sina karaktärer, oavsett vad de ställer till med. Det gör också läsningen så mycket mer intressant.

Wow what a stunning book this is, certainly makes it into my top 10.

Brutally violent and amazingly moving this is a book that will have you rooting for the bad guy. The style of writing, no quotations, little grammar and words melting together was confusing for a few pages but once you get the hang of it there is no confusion, it makes me wonder why anybody ever uses "he said, she said". I only had one issue and that was TAKRIST, took me a while to realise KRIST was CHRIST.

The ending of Tralala was shocking, I had been pulled into the story as it was slowly moving along, as the main character was spiralling out of control, then you get a kick to the head as the last few pages are one sentence, one terrible sentence that leaves your mouth hanging open.

Quite often in these transgressive books I find a part to laugh at, what the character would be doing was wrong but I still find it funny, but in Last Exit to Brooklyn there was nothing to laugh at as you feel you are there experiencing everything.

Coda, the last part, was my favourite, probably one of the best things I have ever read. Instantly I was transported to the Projects, all the characters felt real and all that was going on, the desperation, the hatred and the love, you feel them all. And as for the women's chorus, they have to be the nastiest, most disgusting women you'll ever meet.

The version i read had a note from the author talking about his life, learning to write and how much he loved the characters, He even admits to crying when making the movie when he sees the ending of Strike.

Feeling sad now its over.