Description
Book Synopsis''It is quite an experience to be locked up all by yourself in any size room'' says the anonymous narrator of Hubert Selby Jr.''s second novel. What follows is a startling series of recollections and fantasies that illuminate the workings of a prisoner''s unhinged mind. He yearns for his violent childhood, rages against obscure authorities, and imagines enacting horrible revenge on those who imprisoned him. The prisoner''s remand cell becomes the scene of a surreal mental torture.
Disorienting, nightmarish and structurally inventive, The Room is a shocking examination of the suffering humans can inflict on each other.
Trade ReviewSelby's best book * The TLS *
A terrifying journey into the darkest corners of the psyche * Guardian *
Selby deploys street slang, common speech, argot and scatology to create a high poetic art...it seems to derive from the greatest American poetry--Whitman, Pound, Williams, and Olson * The Nation *
One must be grateful to Selby for his fatal vision and strong, original talent * Newsweek *
'Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists ... to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America.' * New York Times Book Review *
It's absolutely horrific ... but just about the most powerful novel I've ever read * The Times *
