The tone of the writing reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's work, only less gritty and more poetic. The plot seems to meander its way through the protagonist's solitary life, flitting from moment to moment. It's too short to be plot driven. That being said, the only character who develops in any way...
An epic in miniature, a novella for the ages. Whatever other literary blurbs you'd like apply. A gem of America's literary crown. Most importantly, Johnson's prose is as effective at obscuring the truth as it is in revealing it. He uses objects, the morphing of landscape, and the breakdown of Rob...
Fairly disposable hard-boiled crime fiction with more than a passing nod to Hammett and Chandler. Or even Elmore Leonard without the sense of humour. The set up is simple: unlucky gambler Jimmy Luntz shakes off his debt collector's enforcer through a single act of violence. And this sets off a tr...
I enjoyed this book, and powered through it in a sitting. It's a good, fast, short read, light stuff, but entertaining nonetheless. It's definitely not as heady as Tree of Smoke or as surreal as Jesus' Son, but there's plenty of signature Denis Johnson prose through-out. I probably won't read it ...
Suspenseful, interesting and yet very confusing. I've never read any of Johnson's earlier work but thought this might be a good introduction. I enjoyed it but with a caveat...that I have to admit that I felt something was eluding me in either the storyline and/or the characters during most of t...
what can i say, there was another graduation today. the service was in this catholic church. i brought the pain, i.e. pulled a method man. given the book title, i feel like people were a little less judgemental. i hadn't read tree of smoke or anything by denis johnson, and (honestly?) have enjoye...
The Name of the WorldDenis JohnsonHarperCollins Publishers Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, 2000The Name of the World by Denis Johnson is essentially about a washed up college professor, Michael Reed, aimlessly wandering through life four years after the death of his wife and daught...
Clear, dense, lyrical, convoluted as The Big Sleep, a tale of intersecting fates and levels of reality on the Mendocino Coast of California. Fairchild, the grower of pot, son of a real Steinbeckian/Keseyish owner of 10,000 acres of uncut redwood, is the cause and center of the disaster which swir...
Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and final...
Hungover from the long, rocking flight, with the two stops in between, at both of which they kept us suffocating in our seats for upward of two hours while the cabin’s temperature rose to match that of the surrounding tropical darkness, I, for one, wasn’t sure I was still alive, felt I might have...
. . - Lou Reed, "Heroin" Car Crash While Hitchhiking A salesman who shared his liquor and steered while sleeping . . .A Cherokee filled with bourbon ... A VW no more than a bubble of hashish fumes, captained by a college student . . . And a fami...
Who wouldn’t have wanted to drive you out of her, seeing how your memory, grown sharp as flint in grief, carved her face a little more every day into yours? I thought you were watching me out of her eyes, I thought every night I heard the telephone clatter to the floor again, and your daughter sc...
Billy said a few minutes before his death at the hands of Carl Van Ness, “you my man Billy are something of a genius. No,” he said, “I’m not—yes, you are,” he said. “No,” he said, “it’s just inspiration.” He cut the corner on a switch-back, raced to the crest of a bare knoll and stood still at ha...
In its cool dark Mrs. Houston read her Bible and listened to KQYT very low. Neither shall he multiply wives unto himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold, Deut. 17:17. These laws ought to have been clearly understood by the Mormons to the...
PURVIS and JOB INTERVIEWER, both in business attire. Occasionally we hear the mooing of cows outside. PURVIS: Coffee… INT: I’m sorry! I’ll pour you— PURVIS: Don’t bother, it’s fine— INT: No bother a-tall! I’m just a li...