Hubert Selby Jr. was een schrijver die de donkerste hoeken van de menselijke psyche en maatschappij onbevreesd exploreerde. Zijn werken, vaak rauw en compromisloos, richten zich op thema's als verslaving, wanhoop en de strijd om te overleven in harde omgevingen. Selby's stijl kenmerkt zich door zijn directheid en authenticiteit, waardoor lezers worden meegezogen in het innerlijke leven van zijn personages en hun strijd. Zijn schrijven is een krachtig getuigenis van menselijke veerkracht en het verlangen naar verlossing.
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 the life she could have and struggling with her own addictions - food and diet pills. But these four will pay a terrible price for the pleasures they believe they are entitled to.
Harry White is the man other men want to be: admired by his peers, talented, rich, and desired by countless women. His steady rise to a position of unprecedented influence in a New York investment firm seems inevitable to those who know him, and on the way he acquires a beautiful wife and children.
The decadence and violence of the urban streets is graphically portrayed in this novel set in a post-WWII Brooklyn slum.
Set in the Bronx, this novel tells the story of Bobby, a young black man, and his Hispanic friend, Maria. Their lives together are irrevocably shattered when a vicious Hispanic street gang attack leaves Bobby savagely beaten and Maria lying in a hospital bed with a badly burned face.
Fat Phil can't lose at dice, even when his friends turn nasty and he's trying his hardest; a salesman finds success comes from fortune cookie mottoes, but panics when these mottoes turn against him; and, a commuter finds himself obsessed with a plain young woman on his train, at the expense of his marriage.
In his cell, a small-time petty criminal surrenders himself to the sadistic fantasies of hatred, rage and despair that are trapped inside him. This descent into the isolated mind of a man becomes a challenging vision of a world deprived of love.
Driven to desperation by the hand the world has dealt him, a man attempts to buy a gun to end his life. But a computer malfunction causes a delay with the gun license: a life-saving event that sees the man questioning why he should die when there are so many others he believes should go before him.
