These passages come close to matching the coiled energy of Hubert Selby's prose... In the resolution of the novel's central, devastating act, there is an almost Shakespearean sense of a brief restoration of balance after the necessary bloodletting."
The passages in question are comparable to the style and rhythm of Hubert Selby's prose... The resolution of the novel's most significant event features a Shakespearean quality of restoring equilibrium after the required violence.