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erinlcrane's review against another edition
4.0
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
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
cameroneader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
hjfritz27's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
eliarey8's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
themockturtle's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rafhr's review against another edition
4.0
Comecei a ler este livro no verão mas só terminei agora porque precisei de uma pausa a meio. É um conjunto de contos de uma Brooklyn marginalizada dos anos 60-70, tão pesados e cruéis que não consegui seguir a leitura sem parar durante um tempo. O prefácio conta como este foi um livro quase clandestino e que revolucionou a literatura norte americana. Entende-se porquê, cada conto entra nas profundezas de uma sociedade composta de indivíduos que se odeiam. Violência, machismo, homofobia, violência doméstica, são tudo assuntos de quase todos os contos, tratados de forma crua pelo autor. É um livro excepcional e arrebatador. Não dou 5 estrelas por uma pequena nota pessoal: o autor expressa de forma literal na sua escrita aquilo que é a maneira de falar dos seus personagens. Admiro o trabalho do tradutor mas, pessoalmente, cansa-me estar a ler 400 páginas de “atão”, “coa” “nã”, etc.
dw_hanna's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Being my first foray into Selby there’s a lot of jagged thoughts all running together at the same time, sometimes beautiful and sometimes horrifying. Selby does seem to take it a few steps over the line at times, often with little payoff. And yet when it does work, when the totality of the story comes into view, Shelby’s work truly shines. Not a book I’d read again, but one that leaves me intrigued for more and possibly better.