The author recounts his battle with heroin addiction while he was a successful Hollywood writer for Moonlighting and other hit television shows and his successful fight to beat his addiction and fulfill his role as husband and father. National ad/promo.
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From Publishers Weekly
This unabashedly lurid and often highly entertaining book traces Stahl's rise from Hustler staffer, to highly paid prime-time television writer, to his breakneck devolution into self-loathing junkie father and "author of nothing but bad checks." While stumbling cheerily toward rock bottom, he somehow managed to keep landing such plum assignments as writing for Moonlighting and thirtysomething. But fans hoping for backstage gossip about their favorite shows will be disappointed. For all the rivers of every conceivable narcotic flowing here, there is surprisingly little inside dope. "The truth: This book... is less... an exercise in recall than exorcism." Stahl's manic wise-cracking never wavers, whether he is describing his remote and suicidal parents or a grandmotherly babysitter who forced him to lick Jujubes off her nipples every day after school. While Stahl managed to survive his fall with enough "real funny" intact to provoke some grossed-out laughs, what seems meant as a hilarious memoir of his drug-besotted depression too often becomes just a depressing memoir of his hilarity. A study in self-absorption.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
It's not pretty and it's not "professional," but it's Jerry Stahl's true story of his life as a writer. Beginning his career as a pornographer for Beaver magazine, Stahl later wrote fake sex letters for Penthouse and articles for Hustler before moving on to write scripts for such TV hits as Moonlighting, Thirtysomething, and Alf, jobs that put almost $7,000 a week in his bank account. This is also the story of Stahl's addictions to smack, coke, crack, Dilaudids--you name it. Moving between $100 L.A. lunches and meetings with Cybill Shepherd to dangerous scores in the worst parts of the city, Stahl managed to lose his family, his house, his screenwriting opportunity for the second season of Twin Peaks, and nearly his life. Permanent Midnight is not for people with delicate sensibilities or any other low thresholds for truth. Stahl's autobiography provides no glitzy Hollywood confessional with raised letters on the dust jacket, and it's not a self-help book on recovery. Instead, it explores, with brutal honesty and humor, the author's struggle between the nightmares of addiction and the nightmares of sobriety. Permanent Midnight is one of the most harrowing and toughest accounts ever written in this century about what it means to be a junkie in America, making Burroughs look dated and Kerouac appear as the nose-thumbing adolescent he was. Recommended for the true elite: those who can tell themselves a joke while slitting their own throats. Greg Burkman
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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I used to think that there was no way out, that I would just have to kill myself. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I used to think that there was no way out, that I would just have to kill myself. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By N. Siefers
Format:Paperback
Like many drug memoirs, Permanent Midnight starts off with a great premise: man is young, man is poor, man meets drugs, man falls in love with drugs, man gets sudden rush of money, man takes too much drugs, man learns to take too much drugs and still make money, man gets tired of taking too much drugs and making too much money, man moves to Arizona.
And like many drug memoirs the end is grueling and slow. Near the end of the book it seems the writer is thinking more about his paycheck than his work. But I would definetly buy this book just for the first 80%.
And like many drug memoirs the end is grueling and slow. Near the end of the book it seems the writer is thinking more about his paycheck than his work. But I would definetly buy this book just for the first 80%.
Format:Paperback
This book was PHENOMENAL! I haven't read a book this good since I picked up American Psycho, and that was probably about a year ago. (American Psycho is better, though. Nothing beats Patrick Bateman, ever.) I was addicted to this book. Jerry Stahl made me feel his confusion and his pain. It was as if he jammed the neelde into MY vein, and we rode the horse in Chinatown together.
I feel like I know Jerry Stahl now. I feel like we're really good friends. I think I want to give him a phone call and talk about Mother's Day. And then I think I want to go to the park, giggle with him, and point at geese. Oh, the fun! Like, Oh my GAWD Jerry! Let's go to tha Mall! Haha, I really need sleep.
This was such a good book. It will get under your skin. You will NOT be able to put it down. But let's not put the cart before the horse, or we'll shoot ourself in the foot... Don't see the movie! As much as I love Ben Stiller (a guilty pleasure?), this was just not good. And I thought Mr. Stiller did a wonderful job of acting like a junky. I kept thinking, "this can't be the guy that keeps shooting horses in his recent movies..." Maybe he really liked doing this movie... maybe they're all strange, cryptic references to Permanent Midnight: The Movie.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling. Read this book! Read it and love it, beeyotch.
Format:Paperback
Some of us stop off at McDonald's for an egg mcmuffin and coffee on the way to work. Not Jerry, his is an assortment of chemicals that make a big mac look healthy. I can't write an e-mail if I haven't had enough sleep and somehow this guy was able to write tv shows nodding off on heroin. His honesty will pull you in. If you want to know the truth about what it's really like to make it in Hollywood, read this book.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly great book - written very well
This book is about a subject that I did not really want to read about (drug addiction) but the way it was told made me love this book. Read more
Published on Dec 11 2003 by E. Karas
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Seductiveness of Wit in Brilliant Memoir
Permanent Midnight is a deservedly praised masterpiece of a memoir, the chronicle of a man with enormous imagination and writing talent who is hell-bent on overcoming his sense of... Read more
Published on Mar 21 2003 by M. JEFFREY MCMAHON
5.0 out of 5 stars
Smack in the City of Angels
How many books about junkiehood are there out there? Let us count... Many, many, many, and I've read a majority of them. Read more
Published on May 3 2002 by Emily Whiteman
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too much pain.
While no one would argue that Mr. Stahl is a very talented writer, I just could not get through this book. Read more
Published on April 14 2002
3.0 out of 5 stars
A little too narcissistic for my tatstes
First let me say that Jerry Stahl is a good writer. This book does not disappoint because Stahl can't get his point across clearly or in an entertaining way. Read more
Published on Mar 13 2002 by P. Zrimsek
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fast, Dangerous, Sad and True:Addiction and the Human Spirit
This book reads as a wonderful and contemporary account of Hollywood, television, drugs, and most importantly, the life and drama of one lonely man. Read more
Published on Jun 23 2000 by Azen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Droll
This was my favorite of a long string of [auto]biographies I have read about (at least in large part) substance abuse (including Basketball Diaries, Blow, Disco Bloodbath, Long... Read more
Published on Jun 9 2000 by buddyhead
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping But Ultimately Unsatisfying
For those who like no holds barred non-fiction about sub-cultures this book will will be hard to put down. Read more
Published on May 26 2000 by "brianofwestwood"
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jerry Stahl gets honest where most do not...
Not only is this book graphic, it kept me on the edge of my seat wanting this Heroin addict-Pill popping guy on a death wish to wake up and see his death of an existance! Read more
Published on April 19 2000 by Kitten
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good writing brought down by tired subject matter
As a reader, the first thing I found myself asking of Jerry Stahl's "Permanent Midnight" was: Do we really need another story about a guy who gets on drugs, makes a mess... Read more
Published on Feb 20 2000 by T. Martin
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