''It is quite an experience to be locked up all by yourself in any size room'' says the anonymous narrator of Hubert Selby Jr.''s second novel. What follows is a startling series of recollections and fantasies that illuminate the workings of a prisoner''s unhinged mind. He yearns for his violent childhood, rages against obscure authorities, and imagines enacting horrible revenge on those who imprisoned him. The prisoner''s remand cell becomes the scene of a surreal mental torture.

Disorienting, nightmarish and structurally inventive, The Room is a shocking examination of the suffering humans can inflict on each other.