Waiting Period [Paperback]

Selby's latest offers a chilling look into the mind of a killer, as the author of Last Exit to Brooklyn uses stream-of-consciousness first-person narration to slowly transform his anonymous male narrator from a paranoid, disaffected war veteran into a deranged murderer. The catalytic event that initiates the transformation is the narrator's attempt to purchase a gun to commit suicide, but when a brief waiting period ensues, he decides instead to get even with his various tormentors. The first target is the bureaucrat at the Veterans Administration who has been denying the narrator his benefits, an alleged injustice he remedies by slipping the man a lethal dose of E. coli bacteria. The narrator goes through a brief period of killer's remorse, during which he almost confesses to a newsstand operator, but once his jitters pass, he targets a local TV celebrity for another dose of lethal bacteria. From there he goes completely over the edge, building a homemade crossbow as he explores the feasibility of using explosives to facilitate similar attacks in various cities around the country. Selby's style is relentless, harrowing and frighteningly effective, albeit somewhat monotonous and tough to read; this might have been a better novel if Selby had introduced some secondary characters and broken up the first-person narrative into chapters built around each incident. Still, in a world in which the reach of terrorism seems to grow on a daily basis, this story is a disturbing reminder of how vulnerable we are to attacks from the discontented and deranged, regardless of their location or nationality.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Here, Selby (Last Exit to Brooklyn, Requiem for a Dream) again documents obsession, this time that of a disgruntled veteran who stops short of suicide after being faced with a five-day waiting period on his handgun order. In this time, he decides that rather than sacrificing himself he will validate his existence by killing those he deems despicable. Armed with Internet-given E. Coli recipes and pipe bomb instructions, he sets out to eliminate, among others, his boss at the Veterans Administration and Big Jim Kinsley, a Southern racist wrongfully acquitted in the murder of two black doctors. Like Requiem, Waiting Period shows Selby's deftness at employing innovative punctuation and creative spelling in service to his particular narrative voice. Except for random interjections from God, this novel is narrated entirely in stream-of-consciousness first person. Since the novel's voice belongs to a somewhat whiny and paranoid murderer, it does get exhausting after a while, and some lines seem too crafted to spout spontaneously from the brain of a homicidal maniac, albeit a sensitive one. In addition, as only one perspective is presented in this novel, it lacks the lively intermingling of different voices and the seamless transitions between them that Selby exhibits so well in his other work. However, the narrative can be appreciated for its schizophrenic word association games and the narrator's ideas on checking out of the status quo. Fans of vernacular wordsmiths like Irvine Welsh and of Selby's earlier work will want to take a look. Julia LoFaso, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Selby has no qualms about challenging sensibilities, as his most challenging book since the naturalistic shocker Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964) attests. It is a tale of two voices, one a criminal's, the other that of an overseer--the author, God, or, perhaps, the devil. The criminal's preponderates, babbling in frustration about waiting to get the handgun for his suicide and about how miserable he is. Then he thinks of a man who caused him misery. Wouldn't the world be better off without that bloodsucker? He figures out how to kill the man, and does, but plunges into despair afterwards, until a glance at the TV reveals a racist murderer acquitted in the 1960s. Plotting a second righteous homicide, the protagonist realizes he has found a new vocation. The author-God-devil voice is well pleased. The book's jokey tone and movie-ish contrivances are off-putting, and its bleeding-heart-liberal serial killer is an outrageous conceit. Those "shortcomings" are necessary, however, for what is ultimately an allegory of an America capable of answering evil only with more evil. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

When Selby decides to attack, it is with the shock of a practised mugger and with the speed and economy of a poet The Los Angeles Times Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists ... to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America New York Times Book Review --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Hubert Selby, Jr. was born in Brooklyn in 1928. At the age of 15, he dropped out of school and went to sea with the merchant marines. While at sea he was diagnosed with lung disease. With no other way to make a living, he decided to try writing: 'I knew the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer.' In 1964 he completed his first book, Last Exit to Brooklyn, which has since become a cult classic. In 1966, it was the subject of an obscenity trial in the UK. His other books include The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream, Song of the Silent Snow, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period. In 2000, Requiem for a Dream starred Jared Leto and Ellen Burstyn and was directed by Darren Aronofsky. Hubert Selby Jr died in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California in April 2004. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.