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horfhorfhorf's review against another edition
2.0
You can tell this guy made his fortune off writing stuff like ALF. I gave it 85 pages to win me over - it seemed like every fourth page I wanted to put it down. Thanks, but I'll pass.
viewtoakel's review against another edition
4.0
It took me almost 200 pages to reach a point in which I wanted to finish this book, but once I did, I was all in. It took me almost 200 pages to become interested in the life of an self-deprecating, insecure, unlikable drug addict. But this addict, who addresses everything with a dose of dark humor and an overall air of “who gives a fuck”, eventually made me want to know where he ended up even if I didn’t really like him. Underneath it all, an intelligent, interesting man, who never really felt like a man, managed to piece his addiction together and present it with an incredible level honesty. An honesty that I can’t help but appreciate and, in a way, admire.
atomic_tourist's review
Honestly, I hated Permanent Midnight and I'm glad I no longer have to be seen reading this on the Metro... I was so embarrassed that anyone would think I was enjoying this book, it was that bad.
Someone should tell Jerry Stahl that it's okay to filter your thoughts sometimes... I did not expect (and did not want!) to read about his weird Nazi-esque sexual fantasies or his weird semi-misogynistic and racist rants. It's disturbing and it's not interesting.
Why, oh why, was he invited to the Miami Book Fair?? I regret wasting a week on this crap.
Someone should tell Jerry Stahl that it's okay to filter your thoughts sometimes... I did not expect (and did not want!) to read about his weird Nazi-esque sexual fantasies or his weird semi-misogynistic and racist rants. It's disturbing and it's not interesting.
Why, oh why, was he invited to the Miami Book Fair?? I regret wasting a week on this crap.
tsunanisaurus's review against another edition
He's not a very good writer but he's got a heck of a story to tell and does make me laugh and cringe at the same time.
I just can't bring myself to keep reading this book right now so it's be thrown into my pile of "abandoned" and I hope to come back to it later.
I just can't bring myself to keep reading this book right now so it's be thrown into my pile of "abandoned" and I hope to come back to it later.
amymaddess's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Drug abuse
specificwonderland's review against another edition
5.0
The best addiction memoir I've read. Stahl is/was a Hollywood writer who got sucked into heroin. Funny, witty, self-aware.
ruthiella's review against another edition
4.0
I came across this title in a magazine article about novels and books that encapsulate California – and in the case of Permanent Midnight, Hollywood and Los Angeles. Having lived L.A. adjacent for much of my life, I was curious to read it.
Jerry Stahl grew up in Pennsylvania, became a freelance writer, moved to NYC and then to Cincinnati to write for Hustler. The Hustler job led to relocating to L.A. and eventually to Stahl’s writing for T.V. shows. From his early teens he used drugs to self-medicate (probably depression - the book suggests that both his parents suffered from this as well) and this lead to a full blown heroin addiction supplemented by other drugs which he nursed through his career and in his role as a father to a small child. It is a harrowing story of both self-loathing and longing for the annihilation that heroin provides…until it doesn’t anymore.
I appreciated Stahl’s honest, vivid and often funny depiction of his messed-up life. I found structure was a little confusing, bouncing from one time in his life, then going back, then forward again and maybe it was a little overlong in parts. It is hard to tell because there is often a lot of repetition in this type of experience with quitting and relapsing and quitting and relapsing. The book ends abruptly but in a sense that works because addiction never ends. One might stop drinking, smoking, shooting up, [fill in the blank], but I don’t think the urge ever really goes away.
Jerry Stahl grew up in Pennsylvania, became a freelance writer, moved to NYC and then to Cincinnati to write for Hustler. The Hustler job led to relocating to L.A. and eventually to Stahl’s writing for T.V. shows. From his early teens he used drugs to self-medicate (probably depression - the book suggests that both his parents suffered from this as well) and this lead to a full blown heroin addiction supplemented by other drugs which he nursed through his career and in his role as a father to a small child. It is a harrowing story of both self-loathing and longing for the annihilation that heroin provides…until it doesn’t anymore.
I appreciated Stahl’s honest, vivid and often funny depiction of his messed-up life. I found structure was a little confusing, bouncing from one time in his life, then going back, then forward again and maybe it was a little overlong in parts. It is hard to tell because there is often a lot of repetition in this type of experience with quitting and relapsing and quitting and relapsing. The book ends abruptly but in a sense that works because addiction never ends. One might stop drinking, smoking, shooting up, [fill in the blank], but I don’t think the urge ever really goes away.
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