Review: Permanent Obscurity

Permanent Obscurity
Richard Perez
Ludlow Press (2010), Paperback, 464 pages

I received this free e-book from Richard Perez on Librarything's Member Giveaway.

‘Wanting is a manifestation of the whole of life’ Dostoevsky

Permanent Obscurity by Richard Perez tells the story of two girls, Dolores and Serena in their ‘wanting of life’.
The book is divided in three parts: 1 The Kinky Hook, 2 Strange Hungers, 3 No Man’s Land; and is narrated in first person by Dolores.

What about the way of life of Dolores and Serena? I don’t know, maybe the same of other girls in this world, or maybe full of unfortunately events.
We try to accept the last one and explain the story with this words: slowly and relentless a net of depraved people surrounds Dolores and Serena all along the book, until the inevitable ends, where the freedom is no more (and even the dead appear grotesque).
Dolores and Serena’s hopes to get rid of these events are trying to make a movie; but, as always, nothing follows the right path.

In my opinion the title of the book is inadequate: most people could just think a book obscene, although in the book there is more than that. For instance the theme of friendship.
In the first part of the book we can find several similarity with the literature of the last century; I was thinking about the endless Bohemien nights narrated in Journey to the End of the Night by Celine, or A Moveable Feast by Hemingway. So it’s difficult to accept this new Bohemien world; although we can try to think about an evolution of this way of life, maybe with less poetry and literature and more ‘raw’ life.

Some quotes from the book:
‘There was the world you experienced and art you made for real - then there was that sorry s. you shared with others.’ (p. 91)
‘Regardless, a ray of sunshine had broken through my blackened sky, and, just then, I felt that everything would be okay somehow. Everything ... I just had to burn all my bills, avoid the phone when it rang, and not leave my apartment, like EVER. All the trouble in the world was outside, and I was in here. SAFE. In safety.’ (p. 194)