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Top reviews from other countries
Dan McFarland
Jerry Stahl’s best book.
Reviewed in the United States on 26 June 2023
rad
Memoir Unbound
Reviewed in the United States on 19 September 2016
rad
Reviewed in the United States on 19 September 2016
( I was like 11 and raiding my old mans collection of gentleman rags as I prepared for my first career as a stripper) and later latching on to his voice in the LA weekly as I stripped in preparation for my destiny as a writer, I truly responded to his style because I never connected the dots until much later when a student in my HS English class ( he had a heroin jones at 17 and asked me to help him-- he's a nurse who married the girl I chose for him these days) brought me this book and insisted I read it. Next thing I knew I had the Stahl collection circulating in my underground book club as kids latched on to Perv, Fatty and Love Without. Ultimately Paradoxia by Lydia Lunch beat him out. But I dragged kids to Stahl's readings and he ended up shipping us books so I could keep up. I know I was a great teacher because my students were always stealing my books.
So is PM perfect? Not really . It's legendary though as Stahl admits the tome originally started out as a nearly 1000 page embarrassment his mentor Cubby wisely advised him to edit with this advice : Write with love. I try to heed these words myself but it's not as easy as it sounds. However, I suspect it is the guiding spirit in this memoir which opened the door, for better or worse, to many a drug addled memoir. In grad school I wrote a paper on the history of drug memoirs which was just around the time Stahl's was getting a lot of attention for this book. I had DeQuincey, Crowly and Irvine Welsh but something about Hollywood hipster put me off. I clearly recall reading an article about Stahl in the LAT and considering going to his reading that night at Skylihght Books. It was 1998 or 99, I didn't go, but I alluded to Stahl in my conclusion as the beginning of a trend. When it comes to literary matters my insights tend to be uncanny. Sadly my own life tends to be less available for such penetrating scrutiny.
I would like to Say Bukowski is my biggest influence as he's a much better writer than Stahl. But I know that Stahl's manic and cartoonish excess has been the Template for the writer I am today. His been a part of my Writng life since I knew I was a writer and always in an illicit and scary way. As such he's made me a little dishonest, something Hank's influence dissuades. But that's the nature of fiction, and like it or not memoir is fiction because none of us are willing to tell everything . Stahl just makes it look that way.
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A reader
Tremendous writing, regardless of the subject matter
Reviewed in the United States on 1 March 2014Glen Johnson
it is nice to know he has overcome his past and found ...
Reviewed in the United States on 6 May 2015