Sad he passed away. I did get to see him read live once, at the Borders in the former WTC actually...

I was going on about his style of writing and not about the man himself in particular. I'm sure that if you choose to write about any given subject, the great majority of the time there'd be at least something that's attracting you to it. This is not always true of all writing or music, though. I'll explain to you in the pub next time.

I don't know how he's received in the US, but Selby doesn't really get bracketed with the Beats much in the UK. He tends to occupy that area populated by the likes of Kathy Acker, Burroughs (who again, in the UK, seems to have transcended his Beat associations), Ballard, Irving Welsh, Kafka, etc.

He does have a certain clinical style of writing, especially in The Room, that's quite similar to J.G. Ballard, Burroughs, Kafka and even some early Ian McEwan short stories. I think that his closest ally in recent years though has been Irving Welsh (especially Trainspotting). Welsh constantly cites Alex Trocchi as an influence (another Beat) but I think that that's more to do with them both being Scottish. The 'Bad Blood' chapter in Trainspotting has Selby written all over it.