Last Exit to Brooklyn

Last Exit to Brooklyn is a 1964 novel by American author Hubert Selby Jr. The novel has become a cult classic because of its harsh, uncompromising look at lower class Brooklyn in the 1950s and for its brusque, "every man" style of prose.

Style

Last Exit to Brooklyn was written in an usual style that ignores most conventions of grammar. Selby wrote most of the prose as if it was a story told from one friend to another at a bar rather than a novel, using coarse and casual language. He used slang-like conjunctions of words, such as tahell for "to hell" and yago for "you go." The paragraphs were often written in a stream of consciousness style with many parenthesis and fragments. Selby often indented new paragraphs to the middle or end of the line.

Related Topics:
Grammar - Slang - Conjunctions - Stream of consciousness - Parenthesis

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Also, Selby did not use quotation marks to distinguish dialogue but instead merely blended it into the text. He used a slash instead of an apostrophe mark for contractions and did not use an apostrophe at all for possessives.

Related Topics:
Quotation mark - Slash - Apostrophe mark - Contractions - Possessives

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The following is a typical example of the novel?s style:

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:She didnt need any goddamn skell to buy her a drink. She could get anything she wanted in Willies. She had her kicks. She/d go back to Willies where what she said goes. That was the joint. There was always somebody in there with money. No bums like these cruds. Did they think she/d let any goddamn bum in her pants and play with her tits for a few bucks. Shit! She could get a seamans whole payoff just sittin in Willies (page 111).

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