Thinking about entering the arts? You might think again after reading PERMANENT OBSCURITY by Richard Perez. This is the underlying joke of this novel, a black comedy about two drug-addicted women trying to survive in the grubby underworld of Manhattan's Lower East Side, make a kinky movie, while trying to keep their integrity, friendship, and sanity intact.
Told from the point of view of Dolores Santana, a pot-smoking at times over-the-top artist in training, this book is also a love affair of sorts -- between women. Dolores can't stop idolizing (and mythologizing) her best girl, Serena, a take-no-prisoners kind of person, who's self-centered (and maybe a little nuts).
Above all, both women want to be in the arts and making their living at it. Dolores' love is photography while Serena is a self-styled singer and fetish model. This is a story of their fight to stay alive in this hostile downtown subculture of users and predators. And, more often than not, as this story illustrates, it's a soul-crushing battle.
Drugs contribute to the downfall of these characters. Dolores, the weed-smoker, would deny this, deny any "problem," and her friend, Serena, would do the same regarding her own addiction to "yeyo" or coke. So it may come as no surprise that this "cautionary tale," in a big way, is about drug abuse. We watch Dolores and Serena sabotage themselves, again and again; and we watch their chances at survival slip away as they fall into debt to drug dealers and things grow more stressful and terrifying. The author dramatizes his anti-drug message in an interesting way, never preaching.
The kinky world of domination and BDSM is also referenced heavily in this book. Serena is a dominatrix, by nature. But generally power is held suspect -- an evil to be guarded against, regardless of who's in control. In fact, issues of control and helplessness weigh heavily in the story. Tired of being exploited, Dolores and Serena seek to overcome their helplessness by embarking in a kinky movie project, but the first thing they do in order to achieve this goal, ironically enough, is to exploit other people. When the shoe is on the other foot, they're just as cruel.
The characters of Dolores and Serena are well fleshed out and the dialogue realistic, despite the website for the book (PermanentObscurity.com) claiming it to be a "sexploitation novel." True character is revealed slowly, through dialog and moments of crises in the story. Even the male characters of Raymond and "Baby" are interesting, going against traditional male stereotypes.
It might be said that drugs and the arts go together, or else experimentation is just part of the art life. Again, it seems that survival in this world requires some form of self-medicating. The joke being that the arts and personal and ethical devastation go hand in hand; there seems no way to exist in this underworld without reaching some level of personal and moral bankruptcy -- or at least that's what the author seems to suggest.
In the end I have to say that PERMANENT OBSCURITY is a darkly amusing read -- not a perfect book, since it's a big long, but weirdly enjoyable. It's a morality play illustrating what happens when drug habits go unchecked and individuals start to lose touch with the real world. As the story concludes, you might even feel some pity for the wayward main character, Dolores.
I would recommend this book to anyone, like myself, in arts. The key word is: BEWARE!
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