Product Description

Now a major film by cult director Darren Aronofsky, Requiem for a Dream is a modern-day fable set in New York. Lonely widow Sara Goldfarb nurtures fantasies about appearing on prime-time TV, while her son, Harry, along with girlfriend Marion, plans his break into big-time drug dealing. They both move blindly onwards, contorting their lives into coils of self-deception as they struggle to keep their dreams alive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10189 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-24
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

Synopsis
Requiem for a Dream, now a major film by cult director Darren Aronofsky, is a modern-day fable set in New York. Lonely widow Sara Goldfarb nurtures fanstasies about appearing on prime-time television, while her son Harry, along with girlfriend Marion, plans his break into big-time drug dealing. Their eyes fixed on an impossible future, they move blindly onwards, contorting their lives into coils of self-deception as they struggle to keep their dreams alive.

Customer Reviews

Harrowing story of hope and drugs
Selby's 'RFAD' follows the stories of four dreamers. Harry, Tyrone and Marion are small 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 all determined to avoid the fates of other users. Sara, Harry's ageing mother, is on a shortlist to appear on TV and dreams of wearing her favourite red dress, now several sizes too small. Nothing helps her lose weight until she goes to a doctor who prescribes 'diet pills' (in reality a mixture of amphetamines and downers), which slowly take over her life. The drugs, originally a means to an end for all the characters, become the end in themselves, sounding the requiem for all their dreams.
'RFAD' is a book about hope, and how drugs can both give it and take it away from you. Harry and Marion use drugs to feel good but it is their dreams that keep them going. Sara is lonely, sad and old, and 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, and the way in which the drugs take on gradually more and 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 and Sara's lives at the start of the book and the end is harrowing, as their existences become more drug dependent and more horrific.
'RFAD' is one of the most brutal and harrowing books I have ever read. I found Sara's story very disturbing and particularly well told. Selby uses a mix of fluid prose and 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 and drug usage, so won't be everyone's cup of tea. It is, however, a brilliantly executed, brutal, upsetting and harrowing piece of writing that deserves to be widely read.

Shocking, but a really really good read
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
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 all 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.