Book 13/52 #LastExittoBrooklyn by #HuberSelbyJr (1966) | Last Exit to Brooklyn tells the interwoven and brutally hedonistic stories of those living in New York during the 1950s. When it was first released it caused an outcry of controversy over its portrayal of homosexuality, transvestism, domestic violence and was put on trial in the UK. Reading it in 2018 feels like I've found my way back to the origin of a type of literature I have always been fascinated with. This type of literature aims to dig at something deep in the back of one's psyche that you're not even supposed to think about in polite society. It gets under you skin and crawls around inside. Of course, times have changed and some things that might have been shocking such as the wonderfully portrayed character of Georgette, a transvestite who falls in love with thug, can now seem tame or at least muted, in comparison to more brazen literature or even film. But that is not to say that the book now lacks the power to shock. It really does with the sort of passages you want to cover up on the bus ride home so that the stranger sitting next to you won't think you're some sort of degenerate for reading such a thing in public. What is brilliant about Selby Jr's writing however, is that these shocking moments are not just therefore for the sake of giving the reader a cheap thrill. They are nuanced, multi-layered. They are about giving a voice to the voiceless, the disempowered. There is a tenderness, a sense of humanity to even the worst scenes in the novel. This is something that a lot of authors who aim to shake up their readers seem to forget. Shock is an unbelievably powerful tool and Hubert Selby Jr wields it masterfully. | #atleastonebookaweek #bookstagram #bookshelf #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booklover #bookish #bookworm #bookaddict #booklove #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #booknerd #writersmustread