Having seen Requiem For a Dream the movie directed by Darren Aronofsky years ago, when I had the opportunity to read the book for a class assignment I jumped on it. I have my reservations with movies that are adapted from novels but I liked the movie enough that it peaked an interest to go back and read the book. I would much rather read a novel and then see the movie that is based on it. Having said this, I really wish I would have approached Requiem with this tactic. Unfortunately since I saw the movie before I even picked up the novel I was very distracted and impatient with the book. It was written in a way that makes it anything but an "easy read". The combined dialogue with little or no punctuation made the book a little hard to understand. Since there was no paragraph breaks and Selby failed to say who was speaking it was hard to tell who was talking and right when you figure out who is talking you realize that that character is no longer talking. I think that was my least favorite part of the novel. Although the dialogue was a little difficult to interpret it also did a great job painting a picture of the characters and the relationships between them. For example the main character, Harry, spoke completely differently towards his mother and Marion than he did toward Tyrone. I think the best characterization in the book in the entire book is of Tyrone, Harry's friend and partner. The dialect that he uses in the book really made this character come alive to me. I definitely would not suggest you read this book if you if have a weak stomach or are easily offended. He holds back nothing from sex and drugs to language and violence he goes everywhere and back. This is not in anyway an uplifting story but shows a unique side to dangers of drug addiction and what a slippery slope it almost always is. Harry with street heroin to his mother with doctor prescribed diet pills this book covers a large spectrum of drug problems. If you are open to a racey novel I think this is a fantastic book. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea but it was fantastically written and overall was a great read if your patient.