Requiem for a Dream takes us straight into the rotting heart of New York in the disaster years when heroin ruined everything. Harry Goldfarb and his buddy Tyrone C Love dream of one big score. Harry's mother Sara sits in her apartment and dreams of being on a TV show. Harry and Tyrone do indeed score. Tyrone's contact has some dynamite dope which, even when cut, gives good bag. But the boys can't resist a taste of their own product. It is only right to share with their ladies, Marion and Alice.
Harry is a good Jewish boy. When he is in funds he splashes out on a giant TV for his mother, the best Macy's has on offer. He finds his mother changed. She's lost a lot of weight. She's twitchy and grinds her teeth. It turns out Sara has been cold-called by a guy claiming to discover contestants for TV quiz shows. Naturally Sara applies - and immediately starts creating the persona she wants to the viewing public to see. She especially wants to be able to fit into the red dress she wore for Harry's bar mitzvah. A friend recommends a doctor, the doctor prescribes weight-loss pills and before you know it Sara is hooked.
At the same time Harry and Tyrone's contact runs out of dope. There's no decent heroin to be had. The friends find themselves hustling the streets like the runny-nosed dope fiends they once looked down on. Things get really bad, really quick. No one does grim like Selby.
Selby writes free-form, a sort of bridge between the Beats and the likes of James Ellroy. It takes a moment to get used to - and he isn't always consistent - but it works brilliantly. Any other approach and I don't believe readers would stick with it. As it is, Selby's characters are fully rounded from the moment we meet them. We empathise with their dreams even though we hopefully don't share them. Somehow our empathy enables us to bear the horror. A masterpiece of a very bleak genre.
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