 First edition | |
| Author | Hubert Selby Jr. |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Roy Kuhlman |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Transgressive fiction |
| Publisher | Grove Press |
Publication date | 1964 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback &paperback) |
| Pages | 320 pp |
| OCLC | 18568386 |
| Followed by | The Room |
Last Exit to Brooklyn is a 1964novel byAmerican authorHubert Selby Jr. The novel takes a harsh, uncompromising look atlower classBrooklyn in the 1950s written in spare, stripped-down prose.[1]
Critics and fellow writers praised the book on its release. Due to its frank portrayals oftaboo subjects, such asdrug use, streetviolence,gang rape,homophobia,prostitution, anddomestic violence, it was the subject of anobscenity trial in theUnited Kingdom and was banned inItaly.
The stories are set almost entirely in what is now considered theSunset Park section of Brooklyn; the location is widely misreported asRed Hook, where one story is set and parts of the 1989 movie were filmed.[2]Last Exit to Brooklyn is divided into six parts that can, more or less, be read separately. Each part is prefaced with a passage from theBible.
Last Exit to Brooklyn was written in an idiosyncratic style that ignores most conventions ofgrammar. Selby wrote most of the prose as if it were a story told from one friend to another at a bar rather than a novel, using coarse and casual language. He usedslang-likeconjunctions of words, such astahell for "to hell" andyago for "you go." The paragraphs were often written in astream of consciousness style with manyparentheses and fragments. Selby often indented new paragraphs to the middle or end of the line.
Selby did not usequotation marks to distinguish dialogue but instead merely blended it into the text. He used aslash instead of anapostrophe mark forcontractions and did not use an apostrophe at all forpossessives.
Last Exit to Brooklyn started asThe Queen Is Dead, one of severalshort stories Selby wrote about people he had met around Brooklyn while working as a copywriter and general laborer. The piece was published in three literary magazines in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Tralala first appeared inThe Provincetown Review in 1961, drawing criticism which resulted in an obscenity trial.[3][4]
The pieces later evolved into the full-length book, which was published in 1964 byGrove Press, which had previously published such controversial authors asWilliam S. Burroughs andHenry Miller.
Critics praised and censured the publication. PoetAllen Ginsberg said that it will "explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years."[5]
The rights for the British edition were acquired byMarion Boyars andJohn Calder and the novel ended up in the hands of theDirector of Public Prosecutions. The manuscript was published in January 1966, received positive reviews and sold almost 14,000 copies. The director ofBlackwell's bookshop inOxford complained to the DPP about the detailed depictions of brutality and cruelty in the book but the DPP did not pursue the allegations.
Cyril Black, the then-ConservativeMember of Parliament forWimbledon, initiated aprivate prosecution of the novel beforeMarlborough StreetMagistrates' Court, under judgeLeo Gradwell. The public prosecutor brought an action under Section 3 of theObscene Publications Act. During the hearing the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate ordered that all copies of the book within the jurisdiction of the magistrates' court be seized. Not a single bookseller possessed a copy, but the publishing offices of Calder and Boyars, within the Bow Street Magistrate's jurisdiction, were discovered to be in possession of three copies. The books were duly seized, and Boyars was summoned to show cause why they should not be forfeited.[6] Expert witnesses spoke, "unprecedentedly,"[7] for the prosecution: they included the publishersBasil Blackwell andRobert Maxwell.[7] On the defense side were the scholarsAl Alvarez II, and ProfessorFrank Kermode, who had previously compared the work toCharles Dickens. Others who provided rebuttal evidence includedH. Montgomery Hyde.[8]
The order had no effect beyond the borders of the Marlborough Street Court, the London neighborhood ofSoho. At the hearing Calder declared that the book would continue to be published and would be sold everywhere else outside of that jurisdiction. In response the prosecutor brought criminal charges under Section 2 of the Act, which entitled the defendants to trial by jury under Section 4.[7]
The jury was all male. Judge Graham Rogers directed that the women "might be embarrassed at having to read a book which dealt with homosexuality, prostitution, drug-taking and sexual perversion."[9] The trial lasted nine days; on November 23 the jury returned a guilty verdict.
In 1968, an appeal issued by lawyer and writerJohn Mortimer resulted in a judgment byJustice Geoffrey Lane that reversed the ruling. The case marked a turning point in British censorship laws. By that time, the novel had sold over 33,000 hardback and 500,000 paperback copies in the United States.[citation needed]
In 1989, directorUli Edel helmed afilm adaptation of the novel.
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