The Willow Tree by Hubert Selby Jr. is another novel in about the life outside of society that few people really experience. Selby was born in New York in 1928. A high school dropout who joined the Merchant Marines and came down with tuberculosis. Experimental surgery saved his life but also got hooked on pain killers and heroin. Bed ridden for the next ten years, he developed his own writing style.

The Willow Tree, like most of Selby's work, is deep, deep underground life. Life is bleak and then it gets bleaker and never stops its downward spiral. Hope, doesn't exist in the inner city: Drugs violence, racial hatred, and the realization that that is all there is. His work reflects the darkness he experienced his whole life. The rare instances where there is beauty,“Then starting the descent through the cool refreshing air, feeling an exquisite ecstasy as she floated free of the flames & ugliness...” come at a great price.

Selby developed his own writing style. At the first look, you might think that there is a error in the ebook format or on the press. Paragraphs end, sometimes randomly, sometimes in mid sentence. The next paragraph starts without a tab indention or maybe three tab indention or right on the right margin. Conversations are written as they are spoken and spelled in the same manner. Quotation marks and even a references as to whose turn it is speaking are nonexistent. “Didn't” was typed as “didn/t” because the the “/” key was easier to reach. Periodically, he typed words in all capital letters too. All this might seem a bit annoying to the reader, but it all seems to fall in place and work well. His style seems to add to the story.

Selby sets the tone of the book in the opening sentence: “Bobby lay in bed listening to the rats scratching and squealing in the wall a few inches behind his head, the rats sounding as if they were ready to gnaw through his skull and chew on his eyeballs from the inside.” Bobby, just a kid, is looking forward to summer, getting a job, earning some money, and spending it with Maria. Classic Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story comes into play. Bobby is black and Maria is Puerto Rician and although they are in love others see a problem. Bobby and Maria are attacked by a group of young Puerto Ricians. Bobby barely crawls away and Maria ends up with a face full of lye. Maria ends up at the hospital and even there she is view by some of the staff as either a prostitute or a drug user, that working people will have to pay for her care. Bobby, is saved by an old man name Moishie. Bobby filled with hate and learns from the old man with a numbered tattoo on his wrist about hate and life...and the story begins.

Selby combines an unique literary style, a coherent Burroughs maybe, and a gritty, tough, New York City story. As dark as his writing can be it is also compelling and hard to put down. The characters are mature and at times it is hard to believe they are in their early teens. The Willow Tree is a powerful and moving book that is sure to stay with you for a long time. Unfortunately, the world lost Selby almost ten years ago and no one has been able to step up and take his place. ( )

I'm going to be honest, this was one of the hardest books I've read this year. Not just because of the subject matter (although it was in-your-face, unapologetically rough) but also because of the manner in which the book was written. The Willow Tree by Hubert Selby, Jr. is filled with run-on sentences, hard-to-understand dialect, racial slurs, derogatory remarks, and might possibly be one of the most honest, punch to the gut stories I've read this year.

Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Oct. 5, 2013. ( )

In the South Bronx, Bobby, a thirteen-year-old Black, and Maria, his Hispanic girlfriend, are attacked and savagely beaten. Bobby is taken in by Moishe (a.k.a. Werner Schultz), a concentration camp survivor, and nursed back to health. Bobby plots his revenge while Moishe tries to teach him that hate will destroy him as well as his victims.

The use of run-on sentences with little punctuation may require some adjustment at the beginning. It does not impede the reader’s understanding, but reading it reminded me of reading a student’s initial attempts with the interior monologue style before he/she is completely comfortable with it.

Bobby has a limited vocabulary, but that is not surprising in a young teen; the problem is the author’s limited vocabulary indicated in the exposition. For example, emotions are always “flowing”: “a sense of gratitude flowing through him”; “feeling the joy flowing through him”; “affection flowing between them”; “happiness flowing through mind and body”; “a sense of being lost flowing from him”; “hatred flowing through and from him”; “a sense of strength and softness flowing through him and around him”; “love and gratitude flowing through him”; “a sense of freedom from everything flowing through him”; “a warmth flowing through him”; “the comfort and peace gently flowing through him”; “love, compassion and empathy flowing from him.” And then there are the tears that are flowing so often!

Tiresome repetition is found in other descriptions as well. For instance, there are 357 references to eyes, and at least 120 of those mention eyes either opening or closing or blinking. One is to believe that the relationship between Bobby and Moishe gradually becomes closer, but their relationship is often reduced to their laughing together and eating ice cream together. At least 50 times it is mentioned that Moishe and Bobby start laughing uncontrollably. And how many times must the reader be told that the two enjoy chocolate sauce with their ice cream?

There is a definite lack of realism. Moishe lives in a subterranean apartment, which made me think of the late 1980’s television show "Beauty and the Beast," except that Moishe’s sanctuary has all the amenities. Why a concentration camp survivor would choose to live in such an environment is never explained. And Moishe has no friends? Not once in the months Bobby spends with him does Moishe interact with anyone other than Bobby. He seems to have limitless funds even though his only job is repairing appliances. Why does an old man have a rowing machine that he himself never uses?

The theme of the book, that hatred destroys those who hate, is not one which people will find objectionable. What I did find objectionable is the development of this theme. The pace of the book is painfully slow. Actions are repeated over and over again: each day is spent with Bobby planning his revenge and working out to get fit; Moishe preparing food and the two talking, Moishe revealing something about his concentration camp experiences; Bobby taking a tour of his old neighbourhood while Moishe worries until he returns; the two sharing ice cream with chocolate sauce before going to bed. All this leads to a predictable ending.

This was a disappointing read. Except for the opening, it lacks a plot; because of the limited diction, it makes for a tiresome read; it lacks realism when it could offer gritty details about life in the South Bronx; several times it lapses into melodrama. Give me "West Side Story" which addresses some of the same issues more effectively.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. ( )

Now this is where Selby made a turn to complete and utter self-parody. The Willow Tree is little more than numbing repetition as opposed to the fevered, white-hot word spatter of his classic works. This is despite a typically vivid opening "chapter" or so. By the end, had I read one more bit about the love Moishe felt, I was ready to throw the book across the room. It reads like Selby writing a John Irving novel, and that's not a good thing. Waiting Period, though flawed, was a more fitting end to his career. ( )