A Very Brief Review of ‘Requiem for a Dream’

Hubert Selby Junior’s 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream is considered a cult novel by many, upon reading it for the second time I also came to realise its powerful impact. If you perhaps thought Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby or Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray depicted hedonism to a high degree then you have not experienced anything yet. Requiem for a Dream follows the lives of four New Yorkers who all experience intense addiction. The gritty and raw slang filled dialogue between Tyrone and Harry can initially be very difficult for a reader to decipher, however if you persevere you will completely succumb to the charms of Hubert Selby Junior’s writing. The addictions range from heroin to weight loss. Sara, Harry’s Jewish and television obsessed mother becomes slowly more preoccupied by the need to lose weight, which climaxes to a dramatic and unsettling account of her experience in a mental health institute. Similar to Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time societal corruption is at the forefront of this novel; with Tyrone being racially discriminated, Sara being force-fed and made to endure electrotherapy and Marion, Harry’s girlfriend being forced to prostitute herself in order to score a hit.

This novel has the tension of Palahnuik’s Fight Club and the gritty vocabulary of Ginsberg’s Howl. Although I highly recommend the film adaptation I still urge you to read a copy of this novel as it is devastatingly poetic and beautifully sublime.