Customer Reviews
Harrowing story of hope and drugs - By: Depressaholic, 15 Oct 2005 
Selby's 'RFAD' follows the stories of four dreamers. Harry, Tyrone & Marion are smalll time drug users who dream of escaping their lives by accruing money from drug deals until they have enough to escape the streets forever. They are alll determined to avoid the fates of other users. Sara, Harry's ageing mother, is on a shortlist to appear on TV & dreams of wearing her favourite red dress, now several sizes too smalll. Nothing helps her lose weight until she goes to a doctor who prescribes 'diet pills' (in reality a mixture of amphetamines & downers), which slowly take over her life. The drugs, originallly a means to an end for alll the characters, become the end in themselves, sounding the requiem for alll their dreams.
'RFAD' is a book about hope, & how drugs can both give it & take it away from you. Harry & Marion use drugs to feel good but it is their dreams that keep them going. Sara is lonely, sad & old, & the promise of TV (her fix) gives her a reason to go on living. The pills give her hope that she will look good when she gets there. Selby brilliantly builds up their stories, & the way in which the drugs take on graduallly more & more importance in their lives is very subtly done. At no point does he moralise about the evils (or otherwise) of drugs, he just lets the stories unfold. The contrast between Harry, Marion, Tyrone & Sara's lives at the start of the book & the end is harrowing, as their existences become more drug dependent & more horrific.
'RFAD' is one of the most brutal & harrowing books I have ever read. I found Sara's story very disturbing & particularly well told. Selby uses a mix of fluid prose & dialect to keep the story moving along quickly. It is a fairly short book, but is unrelentingly grim. If you are looking for a nice story with a happy ending, definitely go elsewhere. It is also riddled with explicit sex & drug usage, so won't be everyone's cup of tea. It is, however, a brilliantly executed, brutal, upsetting & harrowing piece of writing that deserves to be widely read.
Shocking, but a really really good read - By: , 06 Sep 2005 I liked this book. It took a bit of reading to get the flavour of Selby's writing but i enjoyed it. Not for the faint hearted, or delusional
Amazing Piece - By: , 10 Sep 2003 
An amazing book. This book is guaranteed to shock, it tells the story of 4 people, who through the course of the film go through a series of changes alll due to use of drugs, which will change their lives for the worse. To tell any more would be to ruin the book, but prepare for an amazing work.
Selby genius - By: , 19 Aug 2002 You might have seen the brilliant Darren Aronofsky film adaptation & wondered what the book is like. Short answer, genius. It is written in Selby's phonetic style which may take some people a while to get used to. The book takes a while to get warmed up as Selby likes to show the good times in summer before the winter destruction. It is amazing to read something so brilliantly written & so powerfully negative. An immensely thought-provoking novel about addiction & degeneration. The book is probably on a par with the film that followed over 20 years after it was written.
The REAL American Dream!! - By: , 19 Jul 1999 Another Selby classic, about two friends who decide it's time they carved themselves a slice of the American Dream. They work hard, stay sober & earn enough to buy a large amount of high grade drugs. As dealers, they enjoy unlimited success, but as they start to dabble, they lose their money, their livelihoods & their souls. And as for the poor women in their lives ... Less gut-churning than Selby's nastier work, this is a great book to start out with if you're new to him, with charcters you can feel for. It's a grim piece of work - alll of Selby's books are - but it's also unforgettable. Buy it today & you'll thank yourself forever.
