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Last Exit to Brooklyn (Evergreen Book) Paperback – January 13, 1994

by Hubert Selby Jr. (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,473 ratings
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Last Exit to Brooklyn remains undiminished in its awesome power and magnitude as the novel that first showed us the fierce, primal rage seething in America’s cities. Selby brings out the dope addicts, hoodlums, prostitutes, workers, and thieves brawling in the back alleys of Brooklyn. This explosive best-seller has come to be regarded as a classic of modern American writing.
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  1. Part of series
    An Evergreen book
  2. Print length
    320 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Grove Press
  5. Publication date
    January 13, 1994
  6. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    9780802131379
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0802131379
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"An extraordinary achievement . . . a vision of hell so stern it cannot be chuckled or raged aside.”—The New York Times Book Review

“As dramatic and immediate as the click of a switchblade knife.”—Los Angeles Times

“The raw strength and concentrated power of Last Exit to Brooklyn make it one of the really great works of fiction about the underground labyrinth of our cities.”—Harry T. Moore

“Last Exit to Brooklynshould explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years.”—Allen Ginsberg

“Drops like a sledgehammer. Emotionally beaten, one leaves it a different person—slightly changed, educated by pain, as Goethe said.”—The Nation

“Selby has an unerring instinct for honing our collapse into novels as glittering and as cutting as pure, block, jagged glass.”—Saturday Review

“Scorching, unrelenting, pulsing.”—Newsweek

“The marriage of brutal street life and gorgeous bebop prose.” —Richard Price, from his “My Five Most Essential Books,” published in Newsweek (April 13, 2009)

From the Inside Flap

The first novel to articulate the rage and pain of life in "the other America," Last Exit to Brooklyn is a classic of postwar American writing. Selby's searing portrait of the powerless, the homeless, the dispossessed, is as fiercely and frighteningly apposite today as it was when it was first published more than thirty-five years ago.

"An extraordinary achievement,...a vision of hell so stern it cannot be chuckled or raged aside."--The New York Times Book Review

"As dramatic and immediate as the click of a switchblade knife."--Los Angeles Times

"The raw strength and concentrated power of Last Exit to Brooklyn make it one of the really great works of fiction about the underground labyrinth of our cities."--Harry T. Moore

"Last Exit to Brooklyn should explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years."--Allen Ginsberg

"Drops like a sledgehammer. Emotionally beaten, one leaves it a different person-slightly changed, educated by pain, as Goethe said."--The Nation

"Selby has an unerring instinct for honing our collapse into novels as glittering and as cutting as pure, black, jagged glass."--Saturday Review

"Scorching, unrelenting, pulsing."--Newsweek

Hubert Selby, Jr. was born in Brooklyn in 1928. Last Exit to Brooklyn, his first novel, was originally published in 1964. He has since written five other novels, The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream, and The Willow Tree, and a collection of short stories, Song of the Silent Snow. Mr. Selby lives in Los Angeles.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0802131379
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press (January 13, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780802131379
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802131379
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,473 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Irvine Welsh

    Irvine Welsh

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    Irvine Welsh is the author of Trainspotting, Ecstasy, Glue, Porno, Filth, Marabou Stork Nightmares, The Acid House, If You Liked School, You’ll Love Work, The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs and Reheated Cabbage. He divides his time between Florida, Ireland, and Scotland.

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  2. Hubert Selby Jr.

    Hubert Selby Jr.

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Hubert Selby Jr. (1928–2004), was a celebrated author of nine novels, including the classic bestseller Last Exit to Brooklyn. His other novels include Requiem for a Dream, The Room, and The Demon. Selby’s fiction, which was championed by writers such as William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was noted for its gritty portrayal of addiction and urban despair, and has influenced generations of authors, artists, and musicians. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Selby died in Los Angeles in 2004.

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  3. Selby Hubert

    Selby Hubert

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Hubert Selby Jr. (1928–2004), was a celebrated author of nine novels, including the classic bestseller Last Exit to Brooklyn. His other novels include Requiem for a Dream, The Room, and The Demon. Selby’s fiction, which was championed by writers such as William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was noted for its gritty portrayal of addiction and urban despair, and has influenced generations of authors, artists, and musicians. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Selby died in Los Angeles in 2004.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
1,473 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

J. Wukotich
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2024
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A spectacular work of art boiling with relentless brutality, toxic relationships, the loss of innocence, and a seemingly endless stream of deprivation. Selby’s characters drip with rage and resentment, and yet… he finds time to talk about the moon and the warmth of early spring mornings.
Last Exit to Brooklyn is not an easy read, and I wouldn’t recommend it to the average reader looking for an escape of some sort. But if you’re looking for savage honesty coupled with prose not unlike the music of jazz legends like Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, Selby is your man.
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David K. Meller
4.0 out of 5 stars A Different Breed of Cat-or book, as the case stands.
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2015
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As far as the question how would I describe the "plot of this book", one would say that it has no plot to speak of...LEtB ends pretty much the way it begins. That being said, it is a very perceptive and observant overview of the tragedy of what happens when people are born to, grow into, and live out their adulthood on what could only be described as a subhuman level of life and existence. Every aspect of their "lives" is related to sex, food, and personal security, and how to get, or keep, them. One could be correct in an observation that some 80% plus of their mental activity is essentially "reptilian brain-stem" activity, with the remainder of the brain-certainly the frontal lobes connected with reason-simply providing a very superficial patina of speech, upright walking, and dressing oneself to disguise the animal (or insect/reptile/ fish) within. The only possible results are violence, ugliness, and tragedy, and those are what happens!

The rather eccentric text notwithstanding, I think that Mr. Selby does very good work in illustrating the kind of people who inhabit what Maxim Gorky more than a century ago called "the lower depths", and-unlike most other writers and dramatists discussing this-does NOT fall into the trap either of 'bad genes" or bad environment" as superficial attempts at "explanation". He simply relies on the narrative to tell the story of what happens to people who choose their lives bereft of any commitment to reason, good judgment, or even ordinary decency, and (still worse) what happens to their children...

There is little or no romanticizing poverty (or its purported "helpers") and this too is a strength of the book, and its author.

This may well have the status of a modern classic! As a work of literature, it certainly has not outgrown its relevance or importance. It is at least as applicable to many millions of people today as it was when it was first released a half century or so ago. The fact that no attempt at "solution" or "correction" to their self-inflicted and self-imposed degradation anywhere in his book is an additional point in its favor, understanding that sometimes evil is beyond remediation or cure.

All told, it is an engaging read, a well written novel (or collection of short stories) and a book that I am glad to have read-even though the avoidance of the usual "happy ending", the book-and even each of the short stories-ends the squalid ways they begin-might dismay many readers.
10 people found this helpful
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DJH83
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant book once you get the hang of the unique writing structure.
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2015
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This was my first experience with Selby Jr, so it took a little while for me to get into his style of writing. Paragraphs go on for pages, and there is virtually no punctuation in his writing. It was a little confusing to figure out which character was talking, because there was no quotations or paragraph breaks to indicate a change. But about 30 pages in, I got used to his style and then the story really took off for me. This novel is raw, gritty, and often violent. I found that many of the characters had no redeemable qualities, but this is also the sad truth of our world. Although Selby paints a picture that is often hard to stomach, it also is a picture that is real and needs to be told. Life isn't all sunshine and rainbows, and Selby transports us to a difficult time and place in American history.
3 people found this helpful
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Charles T. Bauer
5.0 out of 5 stars "All good art is an indiscretion." --Tennessee Williams
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2019
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After four readings in fifty years, this novel still it startles, both the subject matter and the stylistic invention. As literature one might compare it to Jackson Pollock - shocking, innovative, pushing the boundaries of what art can or should be. Violent and racist, filled with abuse and human cruelty, Hubert Selby, Jr. was the master of the underdogs, of the cast aside, the misfits, and lost souls, all presented with total transparency, for the author is nowhere to be found. Selby touches subjects no one touches, and even today, when we are inured to surprise, he still stops us cold.

The structure is in three parts, but the central one, the longest, "Strike", might stand alone. Harry Black, the protagonist, discoverer of accidental love and its uncontrollable forces, immediately takes his place among the most unforgettable characters of America fiction: Queequeg (Moby Dick), Isabel Archer (The Portrait of a Lady), Jim Casey (The Grapes of Wrath), Blanche DuBois, (A Streetcar Named Desire), Jack Burden (All the King's Men), Joe Buck (Midnight Cowboy), The Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon (Night of the Iguana), Hester Prynne (The Scarlet Letter), Ethan Fromm, Billy Budd, and the others in our pantheon.

Hubert Selby, Jr. ran away from home to the Merchant Marne as a teenager and never graduated from high school. Yet, out of sheer naivety and, "I needed money so I thought I'd try to write," he produced one of the greatest masterpieces of mid-twentieth century American literature. His gift is an unflinching verisimilitude of things hidden yet true.

If you have never read it, or even heard of it, that's understandable due to it's controversial nature which continues to this day. It's not easy to shock in 2019, but this book, from 1953, still does, as much by it's characters and it's situations as by its startlingly transparent technique of eliminating quotation marks, and other indications of speech, yet managing to convey voices and situations as clearly as any radio play. The incessant dialogue of multiple speakers rings clear, entirely by tone, by Selby's flawless ear.

Is this novel a unique and personal keening for the human condition, for our endless universal tale of love and loss, or is it a rank exploitation of human squalor and agony, a terrifying vision of hopelessness and hell?
24 people found this helpful
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robert balboni
3.0 out of 5 stars however I did enjoy it for what it was but I guess I ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2015
Verified Purchase
I had expected it to be more hardcore but for the time it was published 64 or 65 I am sure it was quite controversial and probably even banned in some markets. some of the stories seemed to leave a little to be desired in character profiles and description. however I did enjoy it for what it was but I guess I was really expecting to be blown away which I wasn't still is a worthwhile read and I do recommend it but I guess I am just desensitized by 2015 standards.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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AM
5.0 out of 5 stars Of your a fan of the author you’ll most likely like this book
Reviewed in Canada on March 6, 2024
Verified Purchase
A heart wrenching book that explores themes of happiness, friendship, society and the interaction of all these things in NY. If you are a fan of Hubert Selby Jr, you will most likely like this book. It’s « strangely » written as per his usual style. It doesn’t shy away from heavy topics and forced the reader to be uncomfortable. I’ve read requiem for a dream and this book is just as good.
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cartoisb
5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking and grim, but excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2022
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Last Exit to Brooklyn is essentially a collection of short stories, some with common characters, all taking place in the same rough neighbourhood in Brooklyn in the 1950s. The stories focus on a wide and colourful variety of characters almost all of whom are low-lifes and degenerates. The stories are raw and shocking, and they paint a dark and grim picture, although it is a rich picture and there is a sense of humanity that shines through the filth, immorality, perversion and desperation. It is not surprising that this book was the inspiration for  Trainspotting .
2 people found this helpful
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Tabichuela
5.0 out of 5 stars impresionante libro, lo recomiendo
Reviewed in Mexico on June 13, 2019
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la cruda realidad de la vida en norteamerica y está a la altura de Charlkes Bukowski
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john godigna
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Reviewed in Italy on June 12, 2020
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Brilliant
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Pradeep
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark, disturbing narrative of life in the alleys of Brooklyn
Reviewed in India on August 12, 2019
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I should have read this before Trainspotting. Irvine Welsh was obviously influenced by Last Exit, but he managed to make it funny - unlike this book which wrung me out.

The book is disturbing in its violence yet Selby's eyes are like an Argus, peering into the alleys of life in The Projects and in the Brooklyn docks - bringing to light the tragic lives of the queers and the fairies , the alcoholics, the perverts and the working classes and the dysfunctional families of the time.

A gut-wrenching novel that spares nothing to expose the darkest secrets and desires of society.
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