I guess this album was considered some sort of comeback for Neil Young in the seventies, although, let's face it , he'd been there for years. I first heard "Hey Hey My My" on the soundtrack of Dennis Hopper's great, depressing movie "Out of the Blue" (for real!) playing over shots of seagulls swarming over a garbage dump - somehow that image is very appropiate to the music. This album is Neil Young at his most enigmatic and powerful, a combination that only him and Dylan have been able to pull off with any degree of real success. Somehow, the combination of meloncholic acoustic songs and bruising rockers results in an album that's of one piece, instead of one that's an awkard mish-mash. This should really be one of the first five Neil Young albums that you should buy - if you buy that many and feel that you don't need any more, you're not truly a fan.

.. of American novels written in the twentieth century. Probably the most savage indictment of racial relations in our country ever written. All negative reviews of this should be ignored - they obviously don't get it. And what's not to get - this is a fantastic, wonderfully written piece of literature. It's no wonder Ellison found it so hard to follow this one up. It's a double threat of a novel - not only is it genuinely thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating - it's also entertaining and funny as all hell. ... - yes it is bitter, gloriously bitter, the sort of bitterness that comes from anger stifled and suppressed for too long. America has yet to produce a novel as good as this one. Read it.

.. of American novels written in the twentieth century. Probably the most savage indictment of racial relations in our country ever written. All negative reviews of this should be ignored - they obviously don't get it. And what's not to get - this is a fantastic, wonderfully written piece of literature. It's no wonder Ellison found it so hard to follow this one up. It's a double threat of a novel - not only is it genuinely thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating - it's also entertaining and funny as all hell. I've seen reviewers on Amazon.com throw the word "bitter" at it - yes it is bitter, gloriously bitter, the sort of bitterness that comes from anger stifled and suppressed for too long. America has yet to produce a novel as good as this one. Read it.

.. of American novels written in the twentieth century. Probably the most savage indictment of racial relations in our country ever written. All negative reviews of this should be ignored - they obviously don't get it. And what's not to get - this is a fantastic, wonderfully written piece of literature. It's no wonder Ellison found it so hard to follow this one up. It's a double threat of a novel - not only is it genuinely thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating - it's also entertaining and funny as all hell. I've seen reviewers on Amazon throw the word "bitter" at it - yes it is bitter, gloriously bitter, the sort of bitterness that comes from anger stifled and suppressed for too long. America has yet to produce a novel as good as this one. Read it.

Hubert Selby certainly has a mania for the name Harry. In at least three of his novels, one of the main characters is named Harry. In "Last Exit in Brooklyn", there is also a supporting cast of Harrys in addition to Harry the strikebreaker. Therefore, I wasn't too surprised to discover that every short story in this collection is about a guy named Harry. Well, different guys named Harry, at least. It's fun to try and imagine that the stories are all about the same guy, but it just doesn't work, I'm sorry to report. Anyway, not as good as "Last Exit", but what is? Overall, a solid collection, with the exception of a couple snoozers, such as "The Sound", a riff on the same subject as Selby's dullest novel, "The Room" (I can't remember if that one is about a Harry or not...). Selby is such a good writer I wish that he had written more than a mere five books in thirty years of writing. But what he did write is excellent, so why complain? In other words, buy this book.