Requiem for a Dream

By Hubert Selby Jr.,

Book cover of Requiem for a Dream

Book description

Harry Goldfarb, heroin addict and son of lonely widow Sara, cares only about enjoying the good life with girlfriend Marion and best friend Tyrone C Love, and making the most of all the hash, poppers and dope they can get. Sara Goldfarb sits at home with the TV, dreaming of…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

3 authors picked Requiem for a Dream as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Hubert Selby Jr. delivers another dark indictment of life along the outer shores of South Brooklyn, in the form of both this 1978 novel and the grim 2000 film Darren Aronofsky film adaptation (co-written with Selby, with a cameo as prison guard).

The characters of this disturbing drama are as marginalized as the bleak 1970s backdrop they infect. Selby’s prose holds us by the back of the neck as his characters descend down awful spirals of addiction: Sara Goldfarb with her diet pills, and her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion, and his best friend Tyrone, all heroin addicts. Electroconvulsive therapy,…

I highly recommend Requiem for a Dream, published in 1978, which pre-dates the timeline of my own book by a couple of years. Requiem shows the complete degradation of drug addiction to two different generations of people who live in New York City during the drug craze of heroin and other prescription drugs. The characters in Requiem don’t seem to care or even be aware of how devastating being addicted to their drugs really is. They live for the high the drugs bring to them and each suffers tremendously for the total annihilation. A tough book to read but worth it!…

Another book about addiction and the American dream that manages to be beautiful and painful. This is perhaps the hardest book I have ever read, but also one of the most rewarding. It was dark and depressing, but a brilliantly written portrait of addiction. The way addiction sneaks up on you, and how it can become all-consuming; living and breathing the addiction. It was a very intense novel and one that stuck with me long after I finished the final page.

If you love Requiem for a Dream...

Ad

Book cover of The Ballad of Falling Rock

The Ballad of Falling Rock by Jordan Dotson,

Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: “Are his love songs closer to heaven than dying?” Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard it…

Want books like Requiem for a Dream?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Requiem for a Dream.

Browse books like Requiem for a Dream

Book cover of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Book cover of The Basketball Diaries: The Classic about Growing Up Hip on New York's Mean Streets
Book cover of Leaving Las Vegas

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

2,007

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like Requiem for a Dream, you might also like...

Book cover of The Prisoner's Apprentice

The Prisoner's Apprentice by Cheyenne Richards,

Clever Boy. Genius Killer. True Story.

In his father's jail, young Albert finds what he's always wanted: a teacher who understands him. But some lessons exact a terrible price. When brilliant murderer Edward Rulloff is imprisoned in Ithaca, he offers Albert an education most boys in 1846 could only dream…

Book cover of Murder and Malice

Murder and Malice by Hugh Greene,

Dr. Power is promoted to a chair of forensic psychiatry at Allminster University and selected by the Vice Chancellor for a key task which stokes the jealousy of the Deans, and he is plunged into a precariously dangerous situation when there is a series of deaths and the deputy Vice…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in substance abuse, Coney Island, and heroin and heroin addiction?

Substance Abuse 146 books
Coney Island 13 books