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Sailor & Lula #2
Perdita Durango
Bad girl Perdita Durango and her dealer boyfriend Romeo Dolorosa get their kicks on a journey from Louisiana to Los Angeles that involves santeria rituals and kidnapping.
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
7 people are currently reading
357 people want to read
About the author
Barry Gifford
144 books205 followersBarry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness.
He is described by Patrick Beach as being "like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny..."He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.
He is described by Patrick Beach as being "like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny..."He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
July 15, 2018
joe's been telling me to read gifford for a while -- i've been reluctant as i loathe the name barry and a natural pigheadedness always compels me to kick against the pricks. but this cover is a knockout and if gifford's good enough for lynch and mattson, who'm i to resist?
gifford pulls perdita durango, a minor character from wild at heart, and centers his second 'sailor and lula' novel around her. durango's a hard case: murderer. whore. voo-doo practitioner. smoker of marlboro reds. tura satana lookalike... and her story's kinda like weetzie bat for grownups + a touch of repo man + charles starkweather + sun records... pulpy, cheapo, sinister, nihilist, kitschy stuff with a smattering of pure poetry. nasty, brutish, and short.
gifford pulls perdita durango, a minor character from wild at heart, and centers his second 'sailor and lula' novel around her. durango's a hard case: murderer. whore. voo-doo practitioner. smoker of marlboro reds. tura satana lookalike... and her story's kinda like weetzie bat for grownups + a touch of repo man + charles starkweather + sun records... pulpy, cheapo, sinister, nihilist, kitschy stuff with a smattering of pure poetry. nasty, brutish, and short.
May 15, 2022
I don’t write reviews.
Gifford puts Perdita Durango in the spotlight (sort of, for she gets scarce page-time) and we get to learn a bit more about “Crazy Eyes” Santos. However, it’s far from his best. I’d still say that a dud from Gifford is still far more interesting than a lot of other “regular” books I’ve read. Romeo and Perdita really aren’t good people, which is ok, but I don’t like them enough for them to be the main characters. And I can’t honestly wish them success. Perdita and Santos are great as back-up characters in the rest of the series though.
I also found that even though this story has human sacrifice, ritual and Santeria, it is more straightforward and less magical than the others in the Sailor and Lula universe. Nothing much happens in the story and the motivations of Perdita and Romeo are murky. There were a few good names, in typical Gifford style: Glory Ann and Ernest Tubb Satisfy, Duane Oral.
Gifford puts Perdita Durango in the spotlight (sort of, for she gets scarce page-time) and we get to learn a bit more about “Crazy Eyes” Santos. However, it’s far from his best. I’d still say that a dud from Gifford is still far more interesting than a lot of other “regular” books I’ve read. Romeo and Perdita really aren’t good people, which is ok, but I don’t like them enough for them to be the main characters. And I can’t honestly wish them success. Perdita and Santos are great as back-up characters in the rest of the series though.
I also found that even though this story has human sacrifice, ritual and Santeria, it is more straightforward and less magical than the others in the Sailor and Lula universe. Nothing much happens in the story and the motivations of Perdita and Romeo are murky. There were a few good names, in typical Gifford style: Glory Ann and Ernest Tubb Satisfy, Duane Oral.
January 31, 2019
17th book for 2019.
This short novella, the second in Gifford's Lula and Sailor stories (although L&S don't feature here), follows the adventures of Perdita Durango (a minor character in the first book) as she kidnaps a pair of wholesome American teenagers for a black magic ritual in the Mexican desert.
The constant bright nihilism of the writing wore me down; like the feeling you get after eating one candy after another after another.
2- stars.
This short novella, the second in Gifford's Lula and Sailor stories (although L&S don't feature here), follows the adventures of Perdita Durango (a minor character in the first book) as she kidnaps a pair of wholesome American teenagers for a black magic ritual in the Mexican desert.
The constant bright nihilism of the writing wore me down; like the feeling you get after eating one candy after another after another.
2- stars.
November 25, 2010
Another lost book that I wish I still had. Perdita is from Sailor and Lula's universe. A fast, cool read.
March 6, 2025
"Person-to-person violence is never as horrifying as faceless, wholesale slaughter, Woody decided, not ultimately. As gruesome and senseless as some individual murders are, he thought, the impersonality of mass maiming and killing is sordid and perverse beyond belief."
———
I am in awe of Gifford's ability to insert strong political statements against America and the world at large amidst a pulpy, mean, nasty road trip story.
———
I am in awe of Gifford's ability to insert strong political statements against America and the world at large amidst a pulpy, mean, nasty road trip story.
Read
March 20, 2019Barry.... let me be your assistant :-)
February 12, 2018
Insanity. The craziest crime novel I've ever read. A lightning-fast blast from start to finish.
July 26, 2021
In an elegantly crafted guest appearance in Barry Gifford’s Wild at Heart, Perdita Durango is rumored to have killed her own child. As a getaway driver, Perdita observes the slapstick death of her boyfriend as he manages to shoot himself in the head while escaping. One would anticipate her career in her own eponymous thriller to be an old fashioned roller coaster ride between Amarillo and the Gulf of Mexico, with bonus fracases as far west as LA. It doesn’t disappoint.
The name of the attractive young woman Perdita and her partner Romeo kidnap is Estelle Satisfy. They kidnap her and her boyfriend because are sexually attracted to them: not for ransom, but for their bodies. . Perdita tells Estelle that “Girls like you got a kind of sickness, and the only way to cure it is to kill it. Always talkin’ about what’s good, love and that shit, when you’re same as me, just no particular piece of trash.”
“The only two real pleasures left to man on this earth are fucking and killing. When these are gone, guapito [sarcastic for “handsome”], so are we.” Romeo, a Santeria priest, is a fan of mayhem, sadism, human sacrifice, and the indifference of the perpetrator both to his own fate and those of his victims.
Perdita is not a femme fatale. She does not deceive, does not seduce, and does not operate within a gender role that requires her to gain respect by being glamorously dressed, able to be au courant regarding fads, social amenities, or the kinds of cultural capital reserved for the elite. That Estelle is comfortable with these conventions explains Perdita’s desire to show her she is like Perdita, under the adorable skin.
The name of the attractive young woman Perdita and her partner Romeo kidnap is Estelle Satisfy. They kidnap her and her boyfriend because are sexually attracted to them: not for ransom, but for their bodies. . Perdita tells Estelle that “Girls like you got a kind of sickness, and the only way to cure it is to kill it. Always talkin’ about what’s good, love and that shit, when you’re same as me, just no particular piece of trash.”
“The only two real pleasures left to man on this earth are fucking and killing. When these are gone, guapito [sarcastic for “handsome”], so are we.” Romeo, a Santeria priest, is a fan of mayhem, sadism, human sacrifice, and the indifference of the perpetrator both to his own fate and those of his victims.
Perdita is not a femme fatale. She does not deceive, does not seduce, and does not operate within a gender role that requires her to gain respect by being glamorously dressed, able to be au courant regarding fads, social amenities, or the kinds of cultural capital reserved for the elite. That Estelle is comfortable with these conventions explains Perdita’s desire to show her she is like Perdita, under the adorable skin.
January 16, 2019
I knew Barry Gifford from the movie adaptation of Wild at Heart and because he wrote the screenplay for Lost Highway, but I had never actually read anything by him. Today I finished Perdita Durango, third in a series of "Sailor & Lula" novels (note: they're no actually featured in the book).
Turns out Gifford doesn't make as lasting an impression as a literary author. I found the novel rather half-baked, a series of pulpy sketches running on God knows what. They're not particularly dark (save perhaps for one santería scene) or funny. Perdita, ostensibly the main character, is also disappointingly underdeveloped and doesn't even get much "pagetime". Gifford's nowhere near as fantastic without David Lynch's magic touch. I liked picking up on some characters from Wild at Heart though (Santos, Reggie and the occasional reference to Bobby Peru).
Turns out Gifford doesn't make as lasting an impression as a literary author. I found the novel rather half-baked, a series of pulpy sketches running on God knows what. They're not particularly dark (save perhaps for one santería scene) or funny. Perdita, ostensibly the main character, is also disappointingly underdeveloped and doesn't even get much "pagetime". Gifford's nowhere near as fantastic without David Lynch's magic touch. I liked picking up on some characters from Wild at Heart though (Santos, Reggie and the occasional reference to Bobby Peru).
July 28, 2015
The follow up to Wild at Heart turns darker and grittier by turning aside to follow an expert survivor who flees a key crime scene in that original. Perdita is a fascinating character, but in Gifford's spare fly-on-the-wall style we only get her in observed actions and a few snatches of past that come out in conversation. A little more action-driven than its predecessor, but the action still unfolds with a clipped and random brutality surrounded by the the long empty spaces of the America Southwest highways.
June 2, 2019
This is excellent fun and with a stronger plot than Wild at Heart. Even though this is supposed to be Sailor and Lula #2 it’s really a spin-off novel. The dialogue is excellent and overall I’m left thinking that Gifford is in the same sort of league as James Sallis. No higher praise than that.
August 14, 2019
Excellent dirty and irrespectful narrative not on this side of the law, or morals or correct thinking. An easy and unstoppable read, that will please you or not depending on your own vision of the world, or fiction. I loved it.
November 22, 2023
Ramps up the grotesquerie of Wild at Heart by offloading a lot of unpleasantness to a bit character and her new (Latino) companion. It's sordid and completely ungrounded, which means whatever wisdom of the bottom-feeders that existed last time around doesn't, this time.
June 13, 2013
"Oh, Ernest Tubb, you're just a mean tiny man."
"Lima Beans, Glory Ann, Lima Beans," he said, and then he hung up.
"Lima Beans, Glory Ann, Lima Beans," he said, and then he hung up.
September 19, 2014
Beautiful, Gifford--let that scene linger. We can get some drinks. Turn up the horror, the heartache, the deranged protagonist, too. She's as cool as they come. Loved this one.
March 11, 2019
To put it bluntly, the eponymous heroine of Perdita Durango by Barry Gifford is a very bad girl -- especially when she teams up with Romeo Dolorosa, a santeria priest and big time hood, for fun and games. These games involve the sacrificial murder of a 10-year-old Mexican boy, who is than partially consumed by Perdita and Romeo, and the kidnapping of an Anglo couple for sex and possible murder.
Author Barry Gifford is the Céline of the American Southwest. What other novel could begin with the following lines by Perdita when a sleazy salesman tries to pick her up in an airport bar?
Author Barry Gifford is the Céline of the American Southwest. What other novel could begin with the following lines by Perdita when a sleazy salesman tries to pick her up in an airport bar?
You want me to come to Phoenix with you? You pay my way, buy my meals, bring me back. I'll keep your dick hard for four days. While you're at the convention, I'll do some business, too. Plenty of guys at the hotel, right? Fifty bucks a pop gor showin' tit and milkin' the cow. Quick and clean. You take half off each trick. How about it?Somehow, the salesman begs off this attractive offer and lurks off to catch his flight.
February 11, 2025
Book 2 of the Sailor & Lula series, first published in 1991 under the title “59 Degrees and Raining.” The focus of the story is Perdita Durango, Bobby Peru’s girlfriend from the first book and the reason that Sailor was sentenced to ten years in prison. She and new beau Romeo Dolorosa, a small-time crook and self-professed Santeria priest, go on a crime spree throughout Texas and the Southwest including kidnapping and ritualized murder.
A fun, quick read but no lasting impact. Sailor and Lula do not appear in this tale.
A bonkers exploitation flick starring Rosie Perez and Javier Bardem with a screenplay co-written by Gifford was released in 1997.
BEST SCENE ABOUT BEING RIPPED APART BY LIVE ANIMALS:
“For weeks after the circus left town, Perdita had dreamed about the tiger. He would stand over her, straddling her lithe girl’s body, then pin her to the ground with his paws, his saliva dripping down on her face, before slowly, carefully taking her head into his huge mouth and crushing it with one big bite. This dream did not frighten Perdita. It gave her a warm feeling. The tiger’s mouth, she imagined, would be hot and wet, the enormous teeth, gleaming like polished swords, piercing her skin and bones cleanly, painlessly. And then the tiger would chew her, separating Perdita into smaller and smaller parts, until finally, when the beast had swallowed everything, she would wake up.”
A fun, quick read but no lasting impact. Sailor and Lula do not appear in this tale.
A bonkers exploitation flick starring Rosie Perez and Javier Bardem with a screenplay co-written by Gifford was released in 1997.
BEST SCENE ABOUT BEING RIPPED APART BY LIVE ANIMALS:
“For weeks after the circus left town, Perdita had dreamed about the tiger. He would stand over her, straddling her lithe girl’s body, then pin her to the ground with his paws, his saliva dripping down on her face, before slowly, carefully taking her head into his huge mouth and crushing it with one big bite. This dream did not frighten Perdita. It gave her a warm feeling. The tiger’s mouth, she imagined, would be hot and wet, the enormous teeth, gleaming like polished swords, piercing her skin and bones cleanly, painlessly. And then the tiger would chew her, separating Perdita into smaller and smaller parts, until finally, when the beast had swallowed everything, she would wake up.”
November 27, 2020
Tengo entendido que este es el segundo libro de una saga de 7.
Corazón Salvaje, el primero, me deslumbró. Por eso me pasé en directo al segundo pero la verdad me quedó debiendo.
Y no es que esté malo, la verdad es bastante entretenido, original y hasta emocionante.
Pero lo que en Corazón Salvaje me dejaba volando - esos capítulos con final de Raymond Carver - acá se convierten en una especie de formula para una novela de policías y ladrones.
Y no digo que no funcione. Pero me gustó mucho más Corazón Salvaje.
Aún así recomiendo ampliamente esta novela, sobre todo si se quiere leer algo ligero pero contundente.
Corazón Salvaje, el primero, me deslumbró. Por eso me pasé en directo al segundo pero la verdad me quedó debiendo.
Y no es que esté malo, la verdad es bastante entretenido, original y hasta emocionante.
Pero lo que en Corazón Salvaje me dejaba volando - esos capítulos con final de Raymond Carver - acá se convierten en una especie de formula para una novela de policías y ladrones.
Y no digo que no funcione. Pero me gustó mucho más Corazón Salvaje.
Aún así recomiendo ampliamente esta novela, sobre todo si se quiere leer algo ligero pero contundente.
May 20, 2019
You know how they say sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees? Well Gifford’s writing really feels like you’re looking at a forest and there’s trees making up that forest and all a sudden each tree kinda separates and you realize you’re in outer space lookin at a planet full of forests and it’s overwhelming at first but beautiful more than anything and that’s the feeling and that’s something I’ll hold on to. I’ve rarely had this much fun reading so much of one author back to back to back. Sailor’s got a holiday coming up soon, if I can ever have a day off work.
June 14, 2017
Puedo decir sin ninguna vergüenza que en el caso de Perdita Durango, la película, en este caso, si que es mejor que el libro. Eso no quiere decir que el texto de Gifford no tenga en si mismo un atractivo propio, pero a veces parece que los personajes elegidos para tener alguna profundidad en la descripción de su vida interior, por ejemplo, no son precisamente aquellos que aportan algo verdaderamente valioso a la narración.
El título del libro es, ahora entiendo, engañoso.
El título del libro es, ahora entiendo, engañoso.
February 23, 2021
Takes one of the most interesting side characters from the first book and takes her on a new, even more fucked up road trip through the American South and Mexico. Doesn't quite have the same magic as Wild at Heart, but maybe that's because Romeo & Perdita are missing Sailor & Lula's chemistry.
Still, Gifford's style shines through and is a joy to read.
Still, Gifford's style shines through and is a joy to read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2024
Gifford no para de sorprenderme. Es un tipo capaz de construir un personaje durante 100 páginas para volarlo de un plumazo. Si hay una forma en la que pueda calificarlo es "impune", y le sale perfecto. Perdita y Romeo no son Bonnie y Clyde, Perdita sola es Bonnie y es Clyde. Y la escena del nene es *beso de chef* Hermoso enfermo el Barry.
July 17, 2017
No words wasted in this pulp (thank you Brian) novel with edgy characters with great names and which is superbly poetic at times...the guys a poetic it shows. It's best to read these novels in order this is a minor character from Wild At Heart..
August 7, 2024
It is clear that the writer of this book was new to the comics medium when it was written. The crime story does not flow. The art is just OK. I wonder if the artist understood the planned form factor.
April 8, 2025
Oscura, negra, negrísima. Con unos personajes despiadados, sin moral. Muerte, secuestros, la mafia, el FBI. Todo en un libro corto que avanza a golpe de diálogos y con una historia digna de los mejores thrillers del cine negro.
November 5, 2025
In the Sailor and Lula series, but much more brutal and darker. No Sailor or Lula here. Perdita was the one who drove the getaway car when Bobby Peru lost his head. This one was made into a movie with Rosie Perez and a young Javier Bardem. Should be interesting.
May 31, 2017
Es la obra más floja d la trilogía d Gifford. Pero le saca punta a los Diálogos y los personajes siguen teniendo fuerza. Merece la pena leer esta trilogía .
September 25, 2017
Only of interest if you read wild at heart
September 29, 2017
This whole crazy world is wild at heart and weird on top.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews