Secluded in his remand cell, a small-time criminal surrenders himself to sadistic fantasies of hatred and revenge. Selby's second novel is a claust...
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reviews
Jul 04, 2011
Evan
rated it: 
Devastating, and strictly for the most daring reader.
Uncompromising, stark, bleak, uremittingly repetitive, gruesome, sickening and despairing -- The Room is perhaps not as great as Selby's more narratively interesting masterwork, Last Exit to Brooklyn, but it is no less accomplished a novel. The story, if one can call it that, is a mixture of incomplete biographical memories and revenge fantasies as imagined by a prisoner in a cell who is apparently awaiting trial for a petty violent crim More...
Uncompromising, stark, bleak, uremittingly repetitive, gruesome, sickening and despairing -- The Room is perhaps not as great as Selby's more narratively interesting masterwork, Last Exit to Brooklyn, but it is no less accomplished a novel. The story, if one can call it that, is a mixture of incomplete biographical memories and revenge fantasies as imagined by a prisoner in a cell who is apparently awaiting trial for a petty violent crim More...
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Dec 16, 2008
Robin
rated it: 
Truly haunting, disturbing, possibly Selby's most affecting work of fiction. This is my third Selby journey; every time I pick him up again, I find myself drawn down into the murky black pit of horrific reality he creates.
Anyone with an aversion to negative or abrasive writing, anyone that lets despairing, violent, powerful art infect them and dislikes the feeling, should stay the hell away from this (and all Selby, but especially this). The imagery is so raw, so unrelenting, and it More...
Anyone with an aversion to negative or abrasive writing, anyone that lets despairing, violent, powerful art infect them and dislikes the feeling, should stay the hell away from this (and all Selby, but especially this). The imagery is so raw, so unrelenting, and it More...
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(1 person liked it)
Aug 29, 2009
Off MyFleshSingsOut: I haven't read any of his stuff for years but I just read this on the GoodReads page with his bio:
"Selby's second novel, The Room (1971), considered by some to be his masterpiece, received, as Selby said, "the greatest reviews I've ever read in my life," then rapidly vanished leaving barely a trace of its existence. Over the years, however, especially in Europe, The Room has come to be recognized as what Selby himself perceives it to be: the most d More...
"Selby's second novel, The Room (1971), considered by some to be his masterpiece, received, as Selby said, "the greatest reviews I've ever read in my life," then rapidly vanished leaving barely a trace of its existence. Over the years, however, especially in Europe, The Room has come to be recognized as what Selby himself perceives it to be: the most d More...
Aug 28, 2009
I haven't read any of his stuff for years but I just read this on the GoodReads page with his bio:
"Selby's second novel, The Room (1971), considered by some to be his masterpiece, received, as Selby said, "the greatest reviews I've ever read in my life," then rapidly vanished leaving barely a trace of its existence. Over the years, however, especially in Europe, The Room has come to be recognized as what Selby himself perceives it to be: the most disturbing book ever w More...
"Selby's second novel, The Room (1971), considered by some to be his masterpiece, received, as Selby said, "the greatest reviews I've ever read in my life," then rapidly vanished leaving barely a trace of its existence. Over the years, however, especially in Europe, The Room has come to be recognized as what Selby himself perceives it to be: the most disturbing book ever w More...
Oct 28, 2010
Zee
rated it: 
'The Room' is one that should come with a big warning 'explicit content'. It is only for the very, VERY brave. Do not go into this expecting a great deal of semantic gymnastics or beautiful wordplay. Expect regular sexual and gratuitious violence to the nth degree. Selby's intentions are to go down, down, down into the deepest, darkest corners of a criminal's psyche to find what lurks in the cesspool of stunted, starved childhood memories. As he does this, prepare to be challenged mentally and m
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Jul 04, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
This is one of the only books I have ever read that made me outright nauseous. Selby's violent and brutal and graphic descriptions of revenge were so real and vivid that I had to keep putting this book down to clear my head. But the fact that an author is capable of making me feel such a strong and real queasiness makes me completely in awe of him. He holds nothing back in this book. Selby makes Bret Easton Ellis's writing seem PG 13. If I was forced to choose between being locked in a room with
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Mar 11, 2009
Eli
rated it:
Hubert Selby is one of my favorite writers, but I couldn't help but feel somewhat ambivalent about this one. While it still has all of the elements of a good Selby book, by about halfway through the book I couldn't help but feel that it was getting a bit repetitive.
The story is one of a man who may or may not be wrongly imprisoned, and his sadistic and brutal thoughts of revenge on the people who put him in this place. Needless to say, a story like this can't help but become repeti More...
The story is one of a man who may or may not be wrongly imprisoned, and his sadistic and brutal thoughts of revenge on the people who put him in this place. Needless to say, a story like this can't help but become repeti More...
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Dec 29, 2011
Marc
rated it:
This isn't a visit to a room, it a visit inside someone's head. And it's a dark, dark place.
Some rocks are best left unturned, and some books best left unopened. This may be one of them.
As a literary work, I'm sure The Room deserves the praise it has received, but it's a ride I'm not sure I wanted to take.
Some rocks are best left unturned, and some books best left unopened. This may be one of them.
As a literary work, I'm sure The Room deserves the praise it has received, but it's a ride I'm not sure I wanted to take.
Aug 16, 2009
Guy
rated it:
Vermoedelijk het hardste, meest meedogenloze boek in m’n boekenkast. Was Last Exit To Brooklyn al een beproeving, dan doet The Room er nog een schepje bovenop, met z’n giftige cocktail van walging, sadisme en obsessiviteit. Nu eens voelt het aan als een kafkaiaanse nachtmerrie (een man wordt om onduidelijke redenen opgepakt en opgesloten), dan weer als een gruwelijke dissectie van een geest die laveert tussen grootheidswaanzin, groteske geweldfantasieën en ijskoude misantropie. Een wrange, depri
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Oct 15, 2011
Chris
rated it:
Not as well developed as Last Exit to Brooklyn or The Demon, but still a good read. Selby's gives us enough to know how the protagonist's mind works, but in the end there was an unnecessary vagueness about this novel.
Jul 31, 2011
Nicholas
rated it: 
This book starts as a one, builds to a three and goes back down again, so I give it a 2.
I didn't really like this book and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. It's just some guy sitting in a holding cell having fantasies about sex, violence and revenge. Selby didn't read it for decades after it was published and I can see why. Parts of it are really disturbing. In the final analysis, though, it's a creative writing exercise, not a book and it goes nowhere and says nothing. Parts of i More...
I didn't really like this book and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. It's just some guy sitting in a holding cell having fantasies about sex, violence and revenge. Selby didn't read it for decades after it was published and I can see why. Parts of it are really disturbing. In the final analysis, though, it's a creative writing exercise, not a book and it goes nowhere and says nothing. Parts of i More...
Oct 23, 2011
Hard to read, even harder to put down. The harrowing Hubert Selby is a heart breaker even here.
Oct 15, 2009
Matt
rated it:
physically moved me to read on and read low so as not to attract attention. best zit interplay
Apr 23, 2008
Andy
rated it: 
I’ll bet this is Henry Rollins’ favorite Selby novel, because the imagery is right up his alley, what with a psychopathic prison inmate fantasizing his arresting officers as dogs on leashes forced to have sex with each other.
I guess probing the mind of a criminally insane prick seemed like something worth writing about, but after thirty pages I realized that Selby had nothing illuminating to say. Which means it’s utter trash.
I guess probing the mind of a criminally insane prick seemed like something worth writing about, but after thirty pages I realized that Selby had nothing illuminating to say. Which means it’s utter trash.
Aug 24, 2011
Paul
rated it:
An imprisoned man goes through sinister thoughts of hate, torture and revenge. Very disturbing, not for the faint hearted.
Dec 22, 2007
Jeremy
rated it:
If you read the first 100 pages of this book, you can skip the rest. It's completely redundant. The premise is interesting enough...A man in a prison cell has sadistic fantasies of torturing and humiliating the people who are "responsible" for his incarceration. The book, however, becomes an overly juvenile pity party. I found myself skimming over large portions of it.
Jul 06, 2007
Jack
rated it:
a hard read, but very worth it. strangely obsessive. as you're reading you wonder why the fuck you're reading it but after you get frustrated, toss it aside and forget about it for a few days you wonder what happens next. at least that's my opinion. my experience. my drunken advice.
Oct 04, 2008
Ewan
rated it:
This is a hard book to read. I kept wondering what Selby must have been going through in his own life to have written such a book. Disturbing content but worth a read. However, I did find myself getting annoyed with the character, in a "change the record!" kind of way.
Dec 25, 2007
Sean
rated it:
i read this a long time ago, but i remember it being so disturbing that i wondered if it was even legal to have this freely available in a pubic library. i was also fully convinced that there was no possible way hubert selby jr wasnt a serial killer.
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Jun 30, 2008
Ian
rated it:
I hated hated hated this book up until the last twenty pages. The last twenty pages were breathtaking and shed new light on everything I had read up until that point. That said, those first 200 pages or so were unnecessarily painful.
Nov 19, 2008
Jennifer
rated it:
I learned that this is my least favorite Selby book. He is still one of the best though.
Nov 02, 2007
Nick
rated it:
This is HSJs best work in my opinion. A firghtening romp through the human mind. Influenced my own writing considerably. Wonderful and horrific.
Feb 06, 2008
Johanna
rated it:
I read this because I loved Last Exit to Brooklyn but I definitely didn't love it as much. It was kindof tough to get through.
