Appunti

Is a 1964 novel by Hubert Selby Jr.

The novel describes the lower class of the Brooklyn Waterfront in 1950s, which is depicted as a wasteland prowled by gangs, whores and transvestites.

When it was published its repulsive language and cruel images made the novel difficult to accept or reject. In England a jury found it to be obscene and fined the publisher (1966). In Italy it was banned untile 2000. In 1989 a Edel’s film adaption was relised becoming a commercial success.

The novel has aroused much strong feelings, with reactions ranging from the higest praises to horro, pity and disgust.
Altrough critics and fellow writers hailed this book as an original work and as a true documentary of life in a section of Brooklyn, the novel caused much controversy due to its frank portrayals of taboo subjects, such as drug use, street violence, gang-rape, homosexuality, cross dressing and domestic violence.

STYLE

With no formal training, Selby used his raw language to narrate the bleak and violent world that was part of his youth.
He wrote in a style of prose that ignores most conventions of grammar, as if it were a story told to a friend at a bar counter rather than a novel.
Selby used a slang coarse language, joined the words and inserted dialogues into the text, without quotation marks.
It all blends into huge paragraphs that look like a stream of consciouness.

SUMMARY

The novel is a collection of six stories that could work indipendently one from another but are held together by the location, among the housing project, bars and streets of Brooklyn.

1. Another Day, Another Dollar The first story sets the tone for the rest of the book and the violence involved. A gang of young hoodlums hang around at the Greek, an all-night cafe (sprawling and leaning, laughing and kidding around). Then they get a fight with a group of sailors.
Selby describes the fight persisting in an extensive description of the violence creating a very vivid and cruel image (such as blood, vomiting and violence of shots).

2. The Queen is dead The second story is about Georgette, a hip queer (to quote the book) in love with a hoodlum named Vinnie – who not only takes full advantage of the situation, but also treats Georgette horribly, especially when his friends are around.
She as no choise but to endure the humiliation, as it’s the only way she and Vinnie can be “together”.
One night she is knifed during a stupid game and when she returns home with female clothing and her injuried leg (gushing blood) her brother slaps her face and tears up her drug clothes.
After a few days if delirium due to her benzedrine abstinence, she escapes to her queer friends and they decide to organize a party for the Queen (Georgette), together with the Greek’s guys.
During the bennies-party Georgette, disapponted by her beloved Vinnie, shoots up with heroine.
The story ends without telling us what will happen to Georgette, but the title reference lets guess something.
In the movie she died after a car accident (car driven by the same Selby, as a Cameo).

3. And Baby makes three The third story is about a young woman marryng a man who may be (ot not be) the father of her child. Meanwhile her parents try to keep good spirits and mantain the family wedding traditions.

4. Tralala Fourth is Tralala a young drunk prostitute who makes a living propositioning sailors in bars and stealing theri money together with Greek’s guys. After a few days spent in Manatthan with a soldier, her returns to Brooklyn ends in a gang-rape, after a night of heavy drinking- and she is left ruined and bleeding from all orefices.

5. Strike The fifth story talks about Harry Black, a union worker helping run a factory strike.
He is a blustering, inadequate man and a brutal husband. He gains a temporary status and importance during this long strike and uses the union’s money to entertain the young street punks and buy the company of a transexual named Regina.
Really, he’s just using the union’s petty cash to escape from his unhappy marriage, and to explore his taboo gayness.
By the end of the story the strike ends and he finally become conscious that he is doomed to a life even more marginal than the one he’s already been living.

6. Landsend The last section is a series of short stories chronacling 24 hours in one of the housing project in Brooklyn, showing the horrid nature of its residents.

How book and film compare

There had been several attempts to adapt Last Exit to Brooklyn into a film.
The Last Exit screenplay dispenses with Selby’s episodic structure to create a linear narrative. Major changes include the sacking of Black as a union official and the set-piece labour riot that precedes it; Georgette’s death in a car accident rather than from a drug overdose; and Tralala’s ignominious end (the novel has it taking place years later). The character of Spook, the quiet kid with the crush on Tralala, is completely reinvented for the film, and the story around Big Joe (never named in the novel) is built up from few pages to a major part of the screen version.

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