What do you think?
Rate this book
Desperate Living: A Screenplay
A grotesque and hilarious satire about the American dream, suburban living, and the corrupting influence of power, set in a world that could only have sprung from the unhinged and brilliant mind of John Waters.
On the verge of a suburban mental health crisis, frazzled and wildly unstable housewife Peggy (immortalized by Mink Stole on-screen) runs away from home with her maid and partner in crime, Grizelda (played with spectacular gumption by the sizzling Jean Hill), only to end up in Mortville, a shantytown filled with society’s rejects. Mortville is run by the evil Queen Carlotta, who parades through the cardboard streets taunting and terrorizing her subjects.
John Waters’s wild and visionary fable lampoons everything from the staid conservatism of the American dream to race and class relations. The New York Times ranked Desperate Living at “the highest peak atop [John Waters]’s trash heap of a filmography.” High praise indeed!
On the verge of a suburban mental health crisis, frazzled and wildly unstable housewife Peggy (immortalized by Mink Stole on-screen) runs away from home with her maid and partner in crime, Grizelda (played with spectacular gumption by the sizzling Jean Hill), only to end up in Mortville, a shantytown filled with society’s rejects. Mortville is run by the evil Queen Carlotta, who parades through the cardboard streets taunting and terrorizing her subjects.
John Waters’s wild and visionary fable lampoons everything from the staid conservatism of the American dream to race and class relations. The New York Times ranked Desperate Living at “the highest peak atop [John Waters]’s trash heap of a filmography.” High praise indeed!
96 pages, Paperback
Published May 27, 2025
1 person is currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
John Waters
103 books1,470 followersJohn Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, personality, visual artist and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films: Pink Flamingos and Hairspray. He is recognizable by his pencil-thin moustache.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 22, 2025
Thanks to Macmillan Audio, the amazing John Waters (author), and Libro.fm for providing a free advance audiobook of Desperate Livng: A Screenplay expertly read by John Waters himself. Getting free stuff does not influence my reviews in any way.
In this third installment of Waters’ ‘Trash Trilogy’, we follow the many misadventures of suburban housewife on the run Peggy and her maid Grizelda. It is really trashy and yucky and campy and really depraved, but I loved it like all his other stuff. 5 stars!
In this third installment of Waters’ ‘Trash Trilogy’, we follow the many misadventures of suburban housewife on the run Peggy and her maid Grizelda. It is really trashy and yucky and campy and really depraved, but I loved it like all his other stuff. 5 stars!
Displaying 1 of 1 review