synopsis:

'last exit to brooklyn' is set in the 1950s, and is about the lives of people in Brooklyn. Full of violence, drugs, sex, and the most hideous crimes imaginable, the book examines the other side of the American Dream. The book actually has a bunch of short stories, each of which ends in the most horrible way for the main character possible. No one dies, but most would wish to rather die than go through all that they did. in 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' all of the escape routes are cut off for its major characters; The union official cannot admit to being left wing. The strike leader cannot reveal he is homosexual. The father cannot express his love for his child, the prostitute cannot accept her love for the sailor, and the drag queen is not able to love himself.

The characters who inhabit the book are unforgettable: Harry, the strike leader, who during his weeks of power discovers something of his true nature; Tralala, who rejects the only love she is offered and sinks swiftly to the lowest level of prostitution; Georgette, the 'hip queer' with pathetic aspirations to culture; Abraham, the 'cool ass' black stud, with his girls, his 'bigass' Cadillac, and his undernourished family.

on this book:

Few books have aroused so much strong feeling as 'Last Exit to Brooklyn', with reactions ranging from the highest admiration, through horror, pity and disgust, to the blind fury of those who are opposed to the exposure of social evil. Its merits, challenged first by private and then by public prosecution, have been tested in the courts.'Last Exit to Brooklyn' was found obscene at the Old Bailey in November 1967, a decision which was reversed by a historic Appeal Court judgement in July 1968. Now this 'honest and terrible book', as Anthony Burgess describes it in an Introduction to this book, can take its rightful place as one of the major books of our time.in 1989 a film based on this novel caME OUT.see also: * "I knew that someday I was gonna die. and i knew..."