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…
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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,…
From Craig's list on diving deep into the dark side of Brooklyn.
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!…
From Richard's list on the darkly insane world of NYC in the 1980s.
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.
From S.C.'s list on addicts, addiction, and the damage it does.
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