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The Room Hubert Selby Jr Books

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The Room Hubert Selby Jr Books

I wouldn't give this book five stars if it wasn't for the residual effects of Cubby's writing. I've read Requiem and Brooklyn, and didn't actually enjoy reading them... But I was very affected. He has this way of making stories hurt your feelings.

I've done a prison term and have experienced solitary confinement. This book is about neither. It's a metaphorical account of human psychology. It explores the banality of violence and the repetition of fantasy. It's very abstract, cruel, morose, and depressing. I don't think many people understood the court transcripts and hellacious fantasy juxtoposistion, but it very effective if you get through it. I felt something after reading this and not disgust, rather an unexpected sympathy for a suffering mind. Once again Selby does the greatest literary magic trick of all and demands empathy for the strangers we would hurry past on the street.

And if that ain't high art... I'm not sure what is.


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The Room Hubert Selby Jr Books Reviews

Hellion of the inner mind (meant to heal, perhaps) an under rated book because misunderstood. He's the kind of writer l aspire to become page by page.
It was a very good book to read
Room by Hubert Selby Jr is a slow painful ride into Hell. This isn't the path to the fiery pits but, to null. In this book Selby presents a man who is slowly and inexorably losing his mind in prison. The Room is no fast paced page turner, this book isn't for those seeking instant literary gratification. Both the pace and Selby's style of little punctuation and long thick paragraphs can make for a tedious read at times but, in my opinion this book is worth sticking with.

Room delves into the sick fantasies of a man locked not only in prison but in his own head. His decline is vividly and painfully described in scenes that run the gambit from bittersweet memories of first sexual fumblings to highly detailed sado-masochistic visions of vengance. All in all The Room delivers. I recommend this book for those willing to take the long way to madness.
Like all Selby novels, this exposes the dark side of the human soul. The writing catches your breath with the great emotion Selby is able to place on each page. I was racing through the book, because I couldn't believe what I was reading. I would wake up in the middle of the night and relive each chapter. Not for everyone, but worth it for me.
I hated this book. I felt claustrophobic while reading it so I guess Selby did a great writing job, as usual. But it was not my kind of book...and I loved "Last Exit..." so I can take a hard read.
Not too many novels leave you gasping. What the ... !! Hard, savage, sad and in places achingly funny. One of his rants towards the end had me in stitches. But this is certainly not a comedy. I am going to be thinking about it for days. Sort of stunned. One of the truly great novels you will never forget.
First, I would *highly* recommend that anyone considering reading this book (from , or your local library) read "Last Exit To Brooklyn" first. That will be like dipping your toe into the ocean of depravity that is "The Room".

The story centers on a nameless convict. He is now in a cell, and the reader is subjected to both his memories and his fantasies (mostly concerning revenge on the cops and the system that incarcerated him). The prisoner has a lot of time on his hands, and engages in elaborate fantasies about what he will do to the cops who arrested him, as well as how he will put the system itself on trial. These fantasies are told in narrative style, excruciatingly detailed.

The same kind of literary style Selby used in "Last Exit to Brooklyn" is on display here, only it's toned down. There isn't *quite* so much dialect, and less attention is paid to syntactical issues (e.g., "I'll" vs. "I\ll") than in that book. For me, that's a welcome change, because in "Last Exit to Brooklyn", the language and the syntax (and the fact that Selby isn't consistent with it) took me out of the stories. In "The Room", there's nothing to take you away from the prisoner's brutality.

One important aspect of the book is that the reader is never told the prisoner's crime (although it's implied towards the end), let alone whether or not he's guilty. That leaves the reader with a question Was the prisoner *always* a sadistic monster, or was that created by the system he's now found himself in? I'd give my answer to that, but I think it's something each reader has to decide for himself or herself.

The only reason this gets 4 stars instead of 5 is that some of the imagined courtroom dialogue got kind of tedious to me. I guess Selby wanted to give the reader a break from the brutality.

To sum up If you have the stomach for it (and not everyone does), I would highly recommend this book. It's not light reading, but it's important reading.
I wouldn't give this book five stars if it wasn't for the residual effects of Cubby's writing. I've read Requiem and Brooklyn, and didn't actually enjoy reading them... But I was very affected. He has this way of making stories hurt your feelings.

I've done a prison term and have experienced solitary confinement. This book is about neither. It's a metaphorical account of human psychology. It explores the banality of violence and the repetition of fantasy. It's very abstract, cruel, morose, and depressing. I don't think many people understood the court transcripts and hellacious fantasy juxtoposistion, but it very effective if you get through it. I felt something after reading this and not disgust, rather an unexpected sympathy for a suffering mind. Once again Selby does the greatest literary magic trick of all and demands empathy for the strangers we would hurry past on the street.

And if that ain't high art... I'm not sure what is.