the Edgar Allen Poe of the 20th century.
an excerpt from his book
"waiting period"
my all time favorite writer.
highly recommended reading
"last exit to Brooklyn"
"the demon"
"requiem for a dream"
(million times better then that cheesy ass movie though I loved Harry's mom. She a great actress.)
"waiting period" book about a guy plotting suicide but because of a computer glitch he has to wait for 3 days and within those 3 days he comes to a realization that he shouldn't kill himself. He should kill someone that deserves to die.
a lot of people complain about Selby's style. How he doesn't write enough like Hemingway in a refined manner but the stories that Cubby tells are stories of very unrefined human beings. So why should the story be told by a professor if the story is about a transvestite dating psycho or a guy that suffers from OCD, or the union strikes of the early 20th century?
Cubby lied on his application and enlisted in the army to fight in ww2 but instead ended up just getting Malaria on a ship at sea. he came back and was put in a sanitarium. After many surgeries that eventually led to him losing a few ribs he was told he was a gonner.
while lying in bed another guy at the hospital asked Cubby to write a letter for him. and thats what got Cubby started writing.
So when the doctors put him up in the projects and told him he had 6 months to live he began to write. and would write some of the most urgent and street riddled poetry and fiction America had ever seen. So urgent in fact that the governments around the world would condemn it X-rated and unfit for store shelves.
Cubby lived a long life filled with torment, angst, addiction, and courage.
When the writers guild offered him a lifetime achievement award he refused it sighting "where were they when I was broke?"
He traveled the world with Henry Rollins and was treated like a rock star every where he went. The world will miss the mind and spirit of Hubert Cubby Selby jr.
