Going, Going, Gonzo

‘Gonzo Neurotic: The Best (And Not-So-Best) of Jerry Stahl’By Jerry StahlZE Books, 456 pagesA new compilation of writings, “Gonzo Neurotic: The Best (And Not-So-Best) of Jerry Stahl,” starts off on an appropriate note for a writer whose speciality is advertised as “wild ass journalism”: “I would rather have testicle surgery, on horseback, performed by Special-K crazed lumberjacks than sit down and read my old writing.” Lest you fear Mr. Stahl has a bee in his bonnet about breakfast cereals, please know that “Special-K” is a vernacular term for ketamine. Whereupon he spreads rumors about William Faulkner, gives a high-five to Hubert Selby, and deems 2025 “the year of our hellish lord.” Get ready to rumble.Given the nature of Mr. Stahl’s bully-boy self-abgenation, it’s not altogether surprising that his Wikipedia page ends with a link to “List of people with hepatitis C.” Should this factoid confirm your misgivings about the internet and its blase attitude toward privacy, turn to page 258 of “Gonzo Neurotic” and strap yourself in for “a decade and a half . . . [of] shooting Mexican smack cooked in bus-station toilet water, sharing my rigs with various sketchy types and having bareback open-wound sex with pantyless crack whores.” Sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll, but chiefly drugs, fuel these essays, most of which are blessedly short. The author puts together words like a gunslinger with too many holsters around his waist: He fires a lot of bullets but invariably fumbles the shootout. Taking piecemeal, Mr. Stahl’s prose quickens the pulse. On a more sustained engagement, the pieces are wearying.The author’s protestations about revisiting older writings notwithstanding, the newfangled frontispieces are hardly less prone to logorrhea and one-liners. After listing a run of scatological idiosyncrasies typical of the Marquis de Sade, he comes up with a line that would give pause to a second-rate comedian: “That’s just a Tuesday in Congress.” Rim shot, please!The title of Mr. Stahl’s book could serve as Exhibit A for truth in advertising. Whether he’s mulling the Miss America Beauty Pageant, disgraced writer James Frey or the “World’s Greatest Bounty Hunter,” Ralph “Papa” Thorson, Mr. Stahl invariably ends up calling attention to himself. Gonzo journalism puts all pretense of objectivity firmly to bed. Hunter S. Thompson was the trailblazer for this kind of thing and Mr. Stahl skitters frantically in his drug-addled footsteps.The curriculum vitae of this particular neurotic is indicative of an impressively adaptable intellect. Ben Stiller played him in the ill-fated 1998 adaptation of his addiction memoir “Permanent Midnight.” As a scriptwriter, he was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Showtime’s “Escape at Dannemora” (2018), directed by Mr. Stiller, and a Writer’s Guild of American award for the Nicole Kidman vehicle “Hemingway and Gellhorn” (2012). Mr. Stahl also wrote a number of scripts for “Alf” (1986-1990) — you remember, the TV sitcom featuring a puppet from another plane — and had a short stint as humor editor at Hustler magazine. Among his proudest accomplishments is having co-written a pornographic, post-apocalyptic sci-fi parable, “Café Flesh” (1982). The picture has since supplanted John Waters’ notorious “Pink Flamingos” (1972) as the midnight movie of choice for those who enjoy their entertainments on the cultish side.The cover blurbs come from the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and the forever disgruntled comedian Marc Maron. The former advocated that Mr. Stahl be awarded “the Pulitzer prize or be shot down in the street like a dog”; the latter commends the author’s knack for exploring “the dark tunnel of self.” The best description comes, of course, from the man himself: He is a “Cult Snack on the Food Chain of American Scribblers.” Should that sound like manna culled from journalistic rags of yore, “Gonzo Neurotic” is a banquet fit for those pining for the misery of yesterday’s hangover.

Going, Going, Gonzo

Going, Going, Gonzo

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