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Permanent Obscurity: Or a Cautionary Tale of…
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Permanent Obscurity: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death (edition 2010)

by Richard Perez

Series: Permanent Obscurity (Omnibus 1-3)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
199122136,096 (3.43)17
A youthful bohemian satire, a story of alienated nonconformists, a girls on the lam story, a sexploitation and S/M romp. Welcome to the psychosexual world of PERMANENT OBSCURITY. Inspired by the underground sexploitation films of the 1960s, this bold updating of the roughie subgenre largely takes place in New York City's East Village (ca. 2006), and it chronicles the rise and fall of a unique and intense relationship. Dolores and Serena, two chemically dependent, down-and-out artists set out to take control of their lives by making a fetish-noir/femdom movie. Of course, things don't exactly turn out as planned.… (more)
Member:jasonpettus
Title:Permanent Obscurity: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death
Authors:Richard Perez
Info:Ludlow Press (2010), Paperback, 464 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:None

Work Information

Permanent Obscurity: Or, A Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana by Richard Perez

  1. 10
    The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight by Jimmy Breslin (PghDragonMan)
    PghDragonMan: Sarcastic looks at serious crime committed by grossly inept criminals.
  2. 00
    Post Office by Charles Bukowski (Anonymous user)
  3. 00
    Disco Bloodbath by James St. James (Anonymous user)
    Anonymous user: Another cautionary tale. Yes, drugs are bad ... very bad....
  4. 00
    Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (Anonymous user)
  5. 00
    Beauty Queen by Linda Glovach (Anonymous user)
    Anonymous user: Another cautionary tale ... and slipper slope to oblivion.
  6. 00
    Sid and Nancy [1986 film] by Alex Cox (Anonymous user)
    Anonymous user: Drugs ... and the downward spiral.
  7. 00
    Private Midnight by Kris Saknussemm (PghDragonMan)
    PghDragonMan: Two kinky tales that deal with submission to will in different ways.
  8. 11
    Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (BEC3)
    BEC3: Quite similar in style of storytelling, and a lot of themes.
  9. 00
    Hello Kitty Must Die by Angela S. Choi (PghDragonMan)
    PghDragonMan: Two very dark tales of looking for love in all the wrong places.
  10. 00
    I Think, Therefore Who Am I? by Peter Weissman (PghDragonMan)
None
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» See also 17 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 122 (next | show all)
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
I finished the book today and, while there was a character that I liked (Baby), I can honestly say I didn't really like the book.

The ideas were good, there was definitely a story there but the way it was put together in the book just wasn't for me. The sex and drugs in the story didn't bother me at all. It fit with the storyline and wasn't just there as a shock factor.

I know it was supposed to be campy and taken from the real New York streets of the 90's, but I just didn't feel it. ( )
  oraclejenn | Dec 15, 2015 |
You can read my entire discussion here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/permanent-obscurity-by-richard-perez/

Review snippet: Okay, Permanent Obscurity is not a bad book but it is not a good book either. The protagonist, in addition to lacking self-awareness, is one of the most tiresome, irritating, foolhardy, aggressive heroines you will ever read. She is best friends with a sociopathic, self-absorbed sadist. Together, the two of them, in the bowels of New York, decide to escape from the terrible financial situation they find themselves in by making a porno. Oh yeah, they owe a ton of money to a drug dealer. That should have gone without saying. The porno goes terribly wrong, as you knew it would, ending in a high speed chase and jail time.

The author tries to justify creating characters that irritate and annoy by saying, through the mouth of Dolores:

You better recognize this fact: People are complicated.

People are indeed complicated. Dolores, the heroine, and her friend Serena, are not that complicated, however. There is really only one complicated character in this book, a man called Baby who is in thrall, in a very controlled manner, to Serena. Everyone one else shows clearly how being completely fucked-up often passes for being complicated. ( )
  oddbooks | Jun 9, 2012 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
I'm not sure how I felt about this book. I wasn't crazy about the writing for most of it, it was interesting to me but for some reason the book couldn't keep my attention. I realize that its a somewhat true story but I felt like there were a few places where not much was happening and I got bored. I also had a hard time identifying with any of the characters, maybe I'm just not rebellious enough! This is a small thing, but I also had a problem with the cover, even though I was reading an e-book the cover would show up on my virtual shelf and I was very embarrassed by it. I'm not sure I would recommend this book to anyone because I can't think of any people I know who would enjoy it, but I'm sure there is someone out there who would. I'd say you need to have a sense of adventure for very rebellious young adults and be ready for anything to happen. ( )
  afyfe | Sep 10, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
Not entirely sure what to think, or whether to like or hate it. I'm ambivalent and not a story I'll re-read. For others this could be a masterpiece. For me it was a lesson in a world I knew nothing about - and now I see why. ( )
  cwaldrum | Aug 5, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
Permanent Obscurity: Or a Cautionary Tale... is described by its author as a "sexploitation" novel which centers on "femdom". Narrated in the first person - with an "as told to" conceit - P.O. follows Dolores Santana and her sometimes-girlfriend Serena in an absurdist spiral of drugs, debts owed to dealers and an attempt to make a porno that will solve all their problems.

This initial premise - a promising place to begin - quickly turns to sludge. The plot slowly collapses under the weight of subplots, mostly centering on the girls scoring their mind-altering substance of choice. The revolving cast of drug dealers, fellow users, and current and former lovers are sketched thinner and thinner as the plot progresses, seeming only to exist for Serena to dupe and Dolores to avoid. The New York City of Permanent Obscurity never feels quite real, either. While Dolores uses e-mail, she's hunting down cassettes for a camera and travelling through a city that seems stuck in the gritty, crime-filled 80s.

Anyone who's offended by sex, drug use or frequent use of fuck, shit, cunt, etc should obviously stay away. But anyone who's looking for a voyeuristic look into a drug- or sex-filled world alien to their own would be better off reading Hunter S. Thompson, Warren Ellis or William Burroughs. ( )
1 vote kateschimmer | Jul 5, 2011 |
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Permanent Obscurity (Omnibus 1-3)
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Epigraph
Dedication
Russ Meyer and Eric Stanton, outsiders working the medium of sexploitation
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WHAT LEADS US to do the wicked things we do?
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By Dolores Santana ... means the main character of the book. (The actual author is Richard Perez.)
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A youthful bohemian satire, a story of alienated nonconformists, a girls on the lam story, a sexploitation and S/M romp. Welcome to the psychosexual world of PERMANENT OBSCURITY. Inspired by the underground sexploitation films of the 1960s, this bold updating of the roughie subgenre largely takes place in New York City's East Village (ca. 2006), and it chronicles the rise and fall of a unique and intense relationship. Dolores and Serena, two chemically dependent, down-and-out artists set out to take control of their lives by making a fetish-noir/femdom movie. Of course, things don't exactly turn out as planned.

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Book description


A youthful bohemian satire, a story of alienated nonconformists, a "girls on the lam" story, a sexploitation and S/M romp, a spoof of cult celebrity and "true-life" tabloid sensationalism:

Welcome to the sordid world of PERMANENT OBSCURITY.

Inspired by the underground sexploitation films of the 1960s, this bold updating of the "roughie" subgenre and lampoon of auteur filmmaking largely takes place in New York City's East Village (circa 2006), and it chronicles the rise and fall of a unique and intense relationship. Dolores and Serena, two chemically dependent, down-and-out artists set out to take control of their lives by making a fetish-noir/femdom movie. Of course, things don't exactly turn out as planned.

This book is rated NC-17 : for graphic sexuality (especially BDSM practices and non-vanilla sex), irresponsible drug use, profane language, and depicts reckless, impulsive, and dangerous behavior.

Not politically correct.

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death
by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez)

IS THIS EXPLOITATION NOVEL RIGHT FOR YOU?

Visit: PermanentObscurity.com
See the BOOK TRAILER, EXCERPT & MORE at ----> richardperez.net/perm-o-1.htm


PERMANENT OBSCURITY:
PART 1 - "The Kinky Hook"
PART 2 - "Strange Hungers"
PART 3 - "No Man's Land"

This hardcopy edition contains all 3 "episodes" or books also available separately on Kindle.
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Richard Perez is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.

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