Cover photo by Carlo Mollino,
Cover design by Nick Stone
"Tender and gut-busting."
— LA Weekly"[Stahl]…knows how to shock us into laughter, and his best work mines the grotesque for pathos, a tradition that includes Flannery O'Connor, Barry Hannah and Denis Johnson . . .The key isn't whom he writes about, but at what depth....Stahl plunges us into depraved worlds with a keen intensity of purpose, and his addled protagonists run up hard against the truth of their desires.”
— Los Angeles Times“Stahl's work is relentless in its search for truth. Not the gummy 'truth' of yuppie spirituality, but the grimy, snaking truth of empty bottles, prostitutes and love in its various mutant forms.”
— NY Post"[Stahl's] flair for the tragicomic is well-suited to the short form.... He metes out desperation and dark humor in just the right amounts, applying clarity and sympathy to subjects many would consider marginal or disturbing. It’s obvious that he relates to his characters, weirdos though they may be; it’s obvious, too, that he thinks the reader, with a little help, could relate to them as well."
— Washington City Paper"A wordsmith extraordinaire."
— New Angeles Monthly“A better-than Burroughs virtuoso . . . Stahl has earned the blurbs he’s picked up along the way from James Ellroy, Hubert Selby Jr., and Jim Carroll,and has the right to be counted in their skanky, stylish company.”
— Thomas Mallon, The New Yorker“Stahl’s brilliantly demented riffs deserved to be read—or screamed—aloud.”
— Entertainment Weekly
A teenage boy’s mile-high tryst with a middle-aged widow . . . A love affair between a former junkie and an ex-circus midget . . . A salacious encounter with the vice president . . . The meth-frayed chronicles of a born-again call girl..
In stories of startling breadth and immediacy, Jerry Stahl plumbs the depths of romantic obsession, sex-crazed adolescence, family dysfunction, and other universals of American life. By turns vulgar and tender, wrenching and hysterical, Stahl mines his unique mix of savage humor, unflinching humanity, and unlikely eroticism from the wildest of encounters. Written over the past thirty years, this collection demonstrates why Jerry Stahl’s voice remains one of the most vital and uncompromising in contemporary literature.
Jerry Stahl is the author of the bestselling memoir Permanent Midnight and the novels I, Fatty, Perv—A Love Story, and Plainclothes Naked. He lives in Los Angeles.
Jerry Stahl's LOVE WITHOUT Book Tour
(all events are free, open to the public, and will include a book signing)
Friday, December 7, 7 p.m.
Reading with Jason Brown
Booksmith
1644 Haight St
San Francisco, CA 94117
tel: 415.863.8688
Saturday, December 8, 7 p.m.
Reading with Jason Brown
Booksoup
8818 Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069
tel: 310.659.3110
PAST READINGS:
New York City:
Union Square Barnes & Noble Upstairs at the Square Reading
33 E. 17th Street (with musician Teddy Thompson)
Thursday, July 12, 7pm
KGB Bar, 85 E. 4th Street
Sunday, July 15, 7pm
Los Angeles:
Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont
Thursday, July 19, 7:30pm
Santa Monica Barnes & Noble, 1201 3rd Street
Wednesday, July 25, 7:30pm
Long Beach:
Borders, 2110 Bellflower Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90815
tel 562.799.0486
Thursday, July 24, 7pm
The Writers Garage
at Dipiazzas Lava Lounge, 5205 E. Pacific Coast Highway
Long Beach, CA 90804 tel 562-498-2461
Wednesday, August 1, 8pm
San Fransciso:
City Lights, 261 Columbus Ave.
Thursday, July 26, 7pm
Phoenix, AZ:
Perihelion Arts, 1500 Grand Ave.
Saturday, August 4, 8 pm
LOVE WITHOUT • Stories by JERRY STAHL
ISBN-10: 1-890447-45-5 • ISBN-13: 978-1-890447-45-8 • $14.00
Open City Books • Paperback Original July 12, 2007 • 192 pages
Distributed by Publishers Group West
Contact: Joanna Yas, , 212.625.9048
