Pain Killers

If you like movies like Pulp Fiction, or have that weird, Quentin Tarantino understanding about all his movies, then pick up a copy of Jerry Stahl's Pain Killers, and laugh and read all night. This is a story about a down-and-out undercover cop (with a drug problem, among other strange things)who is sent into prison to find out if an old Nazi residing there is the actual, historical Joseph Mengele, A Nazi doctor who tortured and killed thousands in the camps back then. Doesn't sound like a fun novel, right? Well that the thing, Stahl is a good enough writer with a high-powered weird mind that can pull off a story like this, and not offend anyone-or if he does, he makes it clear that it's all in good fun. The book could have been a bit shorter, but it was packed with plenty of hilarious weirdness that I'm sure any fan of weird humor will appreciate.

I have a nasty habit of discovering excellent series in the middle. Very seldom am I lucky enough to read a novel with characters and situations that I thoroughly enjoy, and then later discover that they have been carried over into new novels. Instead, what often happens is that I find out a book I liked is from the middle (or sometimes end) of an excellent series, and I am forced to backtrack and collect the previous books. Needless to say, I was not lucky enough to catch Manny Rupert, Jerry Stahl's flighty ex-cop drug addict turned private detective, in his first book, Plainclothes Naked. However, Pain Killers is only the second novel in a what will hopefully be a longer series. Stahl's writing has always had an edge to it. Not surprising, considering that his real life exploits (as recounted in Permanent Midnight: A Memoir) have been a tad edgy themselves. But it isn't the edge that makes Stahl's writing so good. It is the way he manages to combine it with a dark humor that doesn't flinch at the ugliness unfolding around it. A drug addict ex-policeman posing as prison rehab counselor in order to investigate a possible ex-Nazi in hiding shouldn't be funny. But then Stahl throws lines at you like "If I were a pedophile, I'd paint kittens." He knows what shouldn't be funny, and he knows how to make you laugh at it. Manny Rupert isn't the kind of hero you root for because he's one of the good guys. He's the guy you root for because, as depraved as he is, he's nowhere near as bad as the people he is surrounded by. Besides, at least he can see the humor of it all, as bitter as it may be. If you're like me, and prefer your leading man to be less than perfect, you'll definitely want to pick up a copy of Pain Killers.

Reading the jacket:..."new king of black humor"(The Los Angelos Times) caught me tickle bone right quick/ spice it up with the quip from Anthony Bourdain,"Jerry Stahl should either get the pulitzer Prize or be shot down in the street like a dog" and presto: done deal/I'am in for the ride. I intially worried that this may be too crazy or off the map. All you got to know is that the author's style is pulpy, fast, absurd and furious, with a dark twisted accelerated wit that presumes an intellect keeping pace, turning on a dime, while intermittently laughing out loud. Manny Rupert is an ex cop/ Jewish P.I/ addicted beyond redemption and married to Tina, a hell-cat femme fatale to die for. He is dead broke and loosing his home. Enter Harry Zell with a ten grand opportunity: just go undercover into prison as a San Quentin drug counselor to smoke out the possible bonafide Nazi Dr. of Death, Joseph Mengele. The author dices it up with Reality TV, Nazi Science, Christain Porn, Human/Animal guinea pigs, Big Pharma and historical tid bits that blow your shocks off. There is a serious current moving below the laughter that addresses the "Holocaust" issue in todays context. Namely, Is it behind us? Fun, entertaining, and yes, at the very end, deadly serious.

Manny Rupert is a P.I. with a drug problem. He's got a money problem too, he'd got none and he's about to lose his home. Then he's accosted by a man in a walker who turns out be a wacked out crazy millionaire named Harry Zell. Zell believes the Angel of Death, you know the guy they made the BOYS FROM BRAZIL movie about, isn't dead. He believe Josef Mengele is alive and maybe not so well, but still breathing at a ripe old age of Ninety-seven in San Quentin. Zell want's Harry to go undercover as a drug counselor and head up a prisoner recover group, sort of like the blind leading the blind, but Harry's got no choice, he's broke and Zell's offering him ten grand in addition to clearing up his mortgage problem. So why does Zell want to know if Mengele is alive? What's he planning? Is Mengele Alive? If so, what's he doing in San Quention? Then there's the problem of Manny's ex-wife, she'd killed her first husband by lacing his Lucky Charms with the glass from broken light bulbs and drano, what's she doing having conjugal visits with one of the inmates? And who knew Jews could join the Aryan Brotherhood? And who knew someone could write a mystery that was so dark and twisted and funny and oh so good that you'd hang on every word.

This is another great installment in the Jerry Stahl canon, a sort of boiled down essence of all his novels. Sure, the classic Stahl humor is present, dark and morbid as ever and strangely enough, hilarious, but so is something else. Manny Rupert, Stahl's hero from Plainclothes Naked, is back and on the trail of a possible real life (and I mean the actual one) Dr. Mengele who is incarcerated in San Quentin. Stahl raises the question of our past US policy of harboring war criminals if they can be put to use for America's benefit. After WW II, the Nazis who were of no use to us, were dispatched to Nuremberg. Is this ethical policy? We kept Warner von Braun and others who had something to "contribute," but at what cost? Certainly it's a policy we continue today but just what exactly does it say about us as a country? It's a creepy route to explore. Stahl handles this issue in a fictional format that is wickedly amusing and serious at the same time. I think in many ways this may be his most important novel. Don't think this is just another funny novel, Jerry gives us food for thought and as always, keeps me wondering what he will do next.