The inner whinge of a petty criminal; disappointing and tedious. ( )

I picked up The Room (as well as The Demon) by Hubert Selby Jr. recently after watching Darren Aronofsky's movie The Fountain. Aronofsky also directed Requiem for a Dream based on Selby's book of the same name. While that movie is a painful film to watch in many respects, I love it. I was interested in reading more by Selby to see if he takes a similar approach in his books. He does.

The Room is a stream of consciousness story of the delusions and fantasies that an unnamed prisoner has in his cell ("the room"). He's a violent and sadistic person so his fantasies are sick stuff and described in graphic detail. While I've never watched one, I imagine this book to be roughly the equivalent of a snuff film in print. It takes a special kind of person to write these stories and it takes a special kind of person to make this their favorite reading subject.

Periodically, I like books that take me out of my comfort zone. This one certainly did it. I had read another review on this book prior to beginning it where someone said that they almost put the book down due to it's intensity. I must admit, it crossed my mind a couple of times too. But, that's precisely what I was looking for.

While I occasionally found the book to be a bit over-the-top (the dog thing got a bit goofy after a while), Selby is a force to be reckoned with. I gave the book three stars because the material is not something that I would deem a classic or even close to being one. He also pursued a couple of the fantasies (again, the dog one) for too long and they became unbelievable. In the end, I felt 3* was about right although I tetered on 3.5*. In the end, it's good but not great.

As mentioned above, I also bought The Demon and I will read it sometime in the not-too-distant future. Although, I hesitate to say that I'm looking forward to it. I've not read nor seen the movie for Last Exit to Brooklyn either so I will do that soon also.

Long and short - if you liked American Psycho (which I did) or if you like Hostel, Saw, or some of those other intensely graphic horror flicks (no interest in them here), you'll like this book. If you want to read something that will make you wince and squirm, this will do it. If you prefer to keep your reading relatively mainstream, DO NOT READ THIS. In other words, "Reader Discretion is STRONGLY Advised".

*****SPOILERS*****

As mentioned above, Selby's protagonist is an unnamed prisoner who slips into and out of fantasies and delusions in his cell . It takes some time before you know why he's been locked up but in one of his repeating fantasies, he is defending himself in court against the two officers who arrested him. It gets into some of the events of the arrest during that "trial." Apparently, he was arrested on suspicion of breaking and entering into retail establishments. Whether or not he was actually guilty is never resolved but with this sick bastard, you assume he's done worse.

The story focuses mostly on three core fantasies/delusions. One of these revolves around the dismissal of his case. In this fantasy, he is dismantling not only the case against him but also the arresting officers. He works with attorneys and the press to bring the much broader issue of authoritarian abuses into the public domain and he is the crusader for change. Everyone (including Congress) views him as a hero and the arresting officers as demons. In a few iterations of this fantasy, he also defends himself in court and easily dismantles all of the testimony of the officers while getting them to perjure themselves.

Another fantasy is one of the arresting officers and their raping of a female motorist. This portion was particularly tough reading. At one point in the story, the description of this event was brought into the delusion of his trial and his testimony before Congress as described above.

The third fantasy was based on his revenge against the officers. In this series of delusions, he tortures the two officers into behaving like dogs. He makes them walk (on all fours), breathe/sound (panting, howling, and barking), mate (sniffing, licking, etc.), and behave like dogs. Keep in mind that these are

two male officers "becoming" two male dogs. In his attempts to "train" them (i.e. force them into these behaviors), he attaches wires to their balls and tugs on them when necessary. He also uses a cattle prod on them (externally and internally) when necessary to make his point. Again, this is brutal stuff. However, he carried this sub-plot on a bit too long and I began to question it. I mean, if these things were happening to me, I'd honestly rather die. I had to remind myself that this was all within his mind. So, much like movies, sometimes you have to suspend belief.

Between these sub-plots, our protagonist would occasionally be awakened by his cell door opening for meals or by his own sickness. You were reminded periodically that these were all mental episodes. In the end, you learn that he is sick and has not been eating. In fact, he's close to starvation. The book closes with a guard opening his cell door and saying that it's "court time."

*****END OF SPOILERS***** ( )

The great thing about Selby is his uncanny ability to express the internal dialogue most people have with themselves, especially when they’re sad, lonely and generally just fed up with life. His style gets a real workout here, the story of a small-time crook in his remand cell and the evil fantasies he cooks up in his head that give him the power over his life that he craves. It’s brutal and ugly and by no means for everyone. I’d still rate The Demon as his best and most intense work, but I wasn’t disappointed. ( )

One of the more disturbing things I've ever read... made me clench all sorts of muscles uncomfortably in sympathetic pain. One of Selby's major gifts, I believe, was his ability to convey unfiltered rage. The Demon is better at demonstrating a slow spiralling into crazy sociopath rage spurred by the squaring-off of a man's life and the submerging of his pscyhosexual drives, whereas in The Room this guy is obviously fuct from the start. I can't really say I enjoyed this book; but if anyone told me they really 'enjoyed' Hubert Selby's books in the same way they enjoyed, say, Pride & Prejudice (I didn't, but that's another story) I would stick my finger in their face and call them a liar, unabashedly. Nonetheless I count Selby among my favorite authors because he's so, like, REALLY real. Dig?

Anyway, The Room is essentially a jaunt into one man's exceptionally sadistic revenge fantasy which has the cops who arrested him forced into a pathetically degrading scenario... I can't really even think about it without feeling sort of sick. So Selby has this dude enthusiastically (dare I say arousedly) picturing the absolute degradation of this officers for most of the book, and you start to hate said dude because it's appalling that he takes such pleasure in engendering such vile plans for torture. But then at the end, as usual, Selby's character plummets into the sort of pathetic self-loathing that searches for a beggar's allowance of mercy somewhere, anywhere, and you actually begin to feel sorry for him. Such is the wonder of Selby.