This powerful and heavily autobiographical novel chronicles the disconcerting initiation of college-educated waiter and writer Sid Bailey into the teeming life of the Logan, a Harlem welfare hotel. Bailey gradually sheds his straight habits as he becomes adept in the ways of the motley crew of addicts, pushers, lesbians, prostitutes, winos, and unclassifiable misfits who live there -- learning much about himself and the life of Harlem's streets.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
The latest addition to Old School Books, Norton's excellent series of reprinted pulp fiction by black authors, is the second unusual novel by Pharr, a waiter who died in 1989. Like his Giveadamn Brown, this bizarre tale of life in a Harlem SRO hotel, first published in 1971, exploits the ``pathological truths'' of the ghetto. If the anti-gay, anti-Semitic, anti-female asides seem offensive, they're nothing compared to the racial self- loathing that permeates the book. Pharr's nihilistic disgust with the junkies, pimps, whores, winos, and welfare cheats who people his incidental, naturalistic fiction is matched by his contempt for life itself. His alter-ego narrator, Sid Bailey, an alcoholic waiter and aspiring writer, finds whatever solace he can in recording the ``criminal aptitude, moral turpitude, and just plain anti-social orneriness'' that the denizens of the Logan hotel exhibit daily. Among the low-life scam artists, homicidal maniacs, and kinky sexual deviants, Bailey stands out as self- described ``pussy,'' a weak square who struggles with his very sanity. The crazy uncertainty about gender and race--whites who act black, women who act like men, etc.--completes the sense of hellacious chaos. But the toxic scuzziness doesn't wash off quickly. This ``Last Exit to Harlem'' is simply unforgettable. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
If you like the page-turning pulp of Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy and Jim Thompson, definitely add the Old School to your hard boiled syllabus. -- Details
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Welcome to the Logan!,
By Azizi (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
This review is from: S. R. O. (Old School Books Series) (Paperback)
Wow! Robert Deane Pharr may be one of the best overlooked writers yet. S.R.O. - though long, catches and keeps your attention from page one. Sid Bailey narrates his own story in this novel of a college educated waiter in New York who, in a drunken stupor, finds himself in the Logan - home to a vivid array of junkies, dealers, prostitutes, and welfare recepients young and old, mean and kind, ugly and truly beautiful. A struggling alcoholic (the lowest addiction on the totem pole according to the junkie residents), Sid tries to rationalize the behavior of these residents only to find that, oddly, he may be the crazy one. Don't miss out on a fabulous read with S.R.O.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Totally Original,
By "drafter824" (Detroit, MI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: S. R. O. (Old School Books Series) (Paperback)
I never read anything like it.Pharr's talent for writing dialogue is truly amazing.When his characters speak you can "hear" them in your head.You can feel Sid Bailey's heightening desperation and see his squalid surroundings.I had to read this book slowly so I could savor each and every page.Then you wonder if it's fiction or cleverly disguised truth?
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant,
By A Customer
This review is from: S. R. O. (Old School Books Series) (Paperback)
Pharr's S.R.O. is one of the best black authored books I've read. Though it is 544 pages, the book is page-turner--I couldn't put it down!This novel tells the story of an alcoholic "square" New York waiter who moves into a Harlem Welfare Hotel and the other residents (junkies, alcoholics, pimps, etc.) who influence him. The reader watches his downfall, vividly described throughout the book. The character development is amazingly believable and the whole story is just great: a must-read!
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