Permanent Midnight Hardcover Book (2005)

Permanent Midnight by Jerry Stahl is a darkly comic, unflinching memoir that chronicles a successful Hollywood TV writer’s descent into heroin addiction and his struggle toward sobriety. Blending brutal honesty with sharp wit, it offers an intimate look at self-destruction, fame, and the chaotic inner life of addiction, ultimately tracing a harrowing path from collapse to recovery. Later adapted into a harrowing cautionary black comedy directed & starring a young Ben Stiller – Stahl’s tale of hedonism & heroin in the City Of Angeles is a common story that’s helped pave LA’s boulevard of broken dreams, yet its Stahl’s fascinating style of introspective & almost violently honest prose channeling writers of the past like Burroughs – that truly makes this gritty soliloquy of self-harm so intoxicating.

This 2005 hardcover copy is a re-issue & in excellent shape. Stahl, despite rarely getting work in Hollywood due to a radioactive reputation he’s cultivated over the last 30+ years- including one legend of once handing a bloody cigarette-burned Twin Peaks spec script to Lynch coming off a drug bender of pure gibberish, still remains one of the industry’s last honest & truly gifted storytellers.