Last Exit to Brooklyn

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Rating

7.5

The Pequod Review:

Your opinion of Last Exit to Brooklyn will most likely turn on what you think of prose like this:

Tralala was 15 the first time she was laid. There was no real passion. Just diversion. She hungout in the Greeks with the other neighborhood kids. Nothin to do. Sit and talk. Listen to the jukebox. Drink coffee. Bum cigarettes. Everything a drag. She said yes. In the park. 3 or 4 couples finding their own tree and grass. Actually she didn’t say yes. She said nothing. Tony or Vinnie or whoever it was just continued. They all met later at the exit. They grinned at each other. The guys felt real sharp. The girls walked in front and talked about it. They giggled and alluded. Tralala shrugged her shoulders. Getting laid was getting laid.

This is a bit too jittery and halting for my taste. But Hubert Selby's setting in 1950s Brooklyn is unforgettable — violent, impoverished, and hopeless.