Customer Reviews

Perv--a Love Story

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I picked up PERMANENT MIDNIGHT on a whim and loved it so much I gave copies out as Xmas presents that year. It's so hard NOT to fall in love with Jerry Stahl's smart & twisted voice. I love PERV just as much - think I'd follow Jerry anywhere. Definitely one of those great books you read so fast because you can't put it down, and then, when you're done, you're depressed because it's over.

A small masterpiece in the coming of age genre, in the tradition of Bellow, Updike and most of all Roth. After a few pages of Perv, most other contemporary fiction feels flimsy, repressed and cold-hearted.

Jerry Stahl captures real life so vividly that not for onesecond are you distanced even an iota from the events of the book. Itis an intensely painful and deeply rewarding read and life-altering in effect. If all books were this immediate we might have a better world where people could actually touch each other in a larger and more comforting way.

I agree that this book should be compared to "Catcher in the Rye", but not for the reasons that everybody thinks. Like "Catcher in the Rye", it is the story of a young boy trapped in a world of insanity. But mainly, I agree with this notion because Jerry Stahl is the first person since J.D. Salinger to effectively compress extremely complicated emotions and situations into one-liners. His writing is compelling, provocative, heart-felt and just plain beautiful. I LOVE this book. On a personal level, I can identify with certain aspects of it and as an apiring writer, I can admire the superior diction. Just a warning: If you are squemish or conservative, you will not enjoy this book. It is very (refreshingly) blunt and sometimes (delightfully) horrifying. If you like experimental and honest writing, you NEED to own this book. I can only hope that Mr. Stahl does not emulate Salinger by becoming a recluse because I eagerly anticipate his next release.

Perv: A Love Story does just that. You have to get through three quarters of the book to understand what I'm talking about, but you'll get it. You think the beginning is shocking? You think anything in the middle is disturbing? Just wait until the end. Based on the graphic details of what occurs to Bobby and Michelle with their, let's call them, captors, I can only assume Mr. Stahl has been there and done that.

Overall, it was a funny and sad story, but I don't think Stahl wants us to feel sorry for the main character. As stated in the book at some point, there's empathy and there's sympathy. I think Stahl wants us to empathize with the characters but to just stand back a minute and not get too close.

Recommended for those that aren't uptight. If you are, you won't even get through the first couple of pages.

The dichotomy between the simple young-adult style prose in this work and the hilariously depraved content made for a remarkable and truly unique literary experience. Every time I began to think that the novel was bordering on being too light-hearted for my tastes, the characters' extraordinary experiences brought me back to the gritty reality of the tale. Life's most formative adolescent experiences are retold in Perv through the eyes of someone who experienced them in the most unfortunate of ways.

Perv is a fantastic novel. Its funny, its filthy and most importantly, its sincere. Like a Catcher in the Rye for the 21st century (set, however, in the 70's), Perv takes an honest look at adolescence, the perils of family life, and the tail end of the days of hippies and free love. Stahl obviously has talent and he uses it well here.

I have just finished this book and had to review it while it was still fresh in my mind. This novel is a great book and a great sophmore effort by author, Jerry Stahl. The main reason why I will not give it the full "five star" treatment because, to me, it did lag a little during the "Meat and Varnish" stage. But all in all an awesome book that I will say is worthy of but two words... DAMN GOOD!

I tore through this book with an odd fascination for Bobby and his (mis)adventures. I knew that around every bend would lie another twisted yet intriguing character or scene. Although the final chapter was, comparatively, a bit too tidy in its wrap-up, I finished the novel having felt I'd witnessed a wild trip down Stahl's memory lane.

The very thing that made "The Catcher In The Rye" what it is makes "Perv - A Love Story" something uglier but nearly as fascinating. In the shadow of all that could be wrong to grow up with as a teenager, a totally unimportant and cowardly 16 year old self-made hero unwittingly raises his head in defiance only to have it crushed by friends, family and life. Big to bite, hard to stomach, and impossible not to love.