A tedious and indulgent short novel. I admit that 'punk' and stream-of-consciousness writing has never been to my tastes, but I suspect even those who get fat on this diet will find Waiting Period a chore. The book starts off with an interesting premise: a man who hates his life decides to commit suicide by gun, but after being delayed at a gun shop by the bureaucratic checks – the 'waiting period' of the title – he has a change of heart. He decides to turn his violent intentions towards the wider world – those "many rotten, evil people with so much control" (pg. 46) – starting with the low-level bureaucrat who denies him his social benefits.

An interesting set-up, but author Hubert Selby Jr. does nothing with it. The plot to kill the bureaucrat is lame (rather than use the gun, the protagonist obsesses over putting e.coli in the man's food) and the second half of the story noodles along until it just stops. There are no plot repercussions, nor are there any guilt-ridden dilemmas on the protagonist's part (as is the case in a comparable premise in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment). The whole book just seemed so purposeless, so un-literary and redundant. The stream-of-consciousness style is headache-inducing and facile, and the protagonist's ramblings are of the generic "rage against the system" variety. In truth, I felt like I'd walked in on the author's masturbation session. ( )

So I love Selby, growing up a punk rock kid and reading Rollins and 2-13-61, he has been something of a cult figure for me and I'd been wanting to read this book for some time, but let me say it was rather disappointing. He seemed out of his element - he's done stunning stream of consciousness sort of prose, as with The Room and parts of his more well known novels - but here he just falls short. We enter the mind of a man pushed to the edge of living, ready to commit suicide until he finds meaning in the murder of wicked others; sounds great, but the mind of this man, it turns out, isn't terribly interesting, illuminating, intelligent, or insightful. Perhaps that's the point, but I don't think so; I think Selby was just sort of lazy, beginning with a fine concept but unwilling or unable to really dive deeply into it. Selby's little omnipotent musings here and there, condoning our murderous narrator, also seemed to me forced and ridiculous (not that we shouldn't condone the narrator). I wouldn't recommend this novel, especially if you've never read the author before; check out Last Exit to Brooklyn, a contemporary masterpiece, instead. ( )

Fed up with society, a man decides to start killing people who deserve it. But he has to find ways to murder that do not involve a gun because he is still waiting for his. Hence the title. Anhwho, the author, who I've read before, does a decent job of bringing humor to his rants about society. A little slow at times, it was a decent read. ( )

Wow!Claustrophobic prose that brilliantly traps you in the fractured mind of a man on the brink of suicide,desperation has never been so much fun.Enthralling,original and elegant. ( )