books by Denis Johnson

books by Denis Johnson

books:

Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 1993

Some of the most brilliant prose you can ever hope to find
Although Denis Johnson's JESUS' SON is often compared to Charles Bukowski, I think this is profoundly unfair to Johnson; he is a far better writer. The two writers feature similar characters in their stories, but Johnson has a gift for language that has seldom been ...

Fiskadoro

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 1995

Post-Modern Popul Vuh ?
You've gotta love an eschatology that encompasses Bob Marley, Jesus and Quetzalcoatl. Denis Johnson's coming of age story revolves around the boy Fiskadoro, and his clarinet teacher, Mr. Cheung. These inhabitants of Twicetown (set in the post-WWIII Florida ...

Seek: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 2002

Seeker's Progress
Denis Johnson is that rare and wonderful thing: a lyrical writer with a brain. This is a collection of non-fiction essays he has published over the last 20 years, and it should win him many new fans who aren't familiar with his acclaimed fiction and poetry. The ...

The Name of the World: A Novel

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 2001

He drops the ball
For the first nine-tenths, maybe, this novel is almost perfect; I got the sense that no _word_ could be replaced. The measured complacency of the prose gives a perfect sense of character; a sense of a man, in fact, who doesn't have a great deal of character, and is ...

Resuscitation of a Hanged Man

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 2001

Outstanding book...
This book was quite enjoyable. It is impossible not to get submerged into the story, Johnson hooks you and never lets go. Denis Johnson is a master of the English language. It seems like every word is necessary for the story. Johnson has a focus on providing the reader ...

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly: Poems Collected and New

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 1996

Will the Poet Come Home?
Doubtless, Denis Johnson is an extraordinary writer of fiction: his stories and novels are terrifying, delightful, hilarious, and bleak. But it remains, even in the prose, the quality of the language, the strange otherworldly perceptions he distills to image and ...

The Writer's Notebook: Craft Essays from Tin House
Anna Keesey, Susan Bell, ...

Tin House Books, 2009

Already Dead: A California Gothic

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 1998

Worth the effort
I read this book for the first time ages ago, during the year that my book THE YEAR OF YES takes place. My male roommate (and sometime crush) threw it at me and yelled "Oh My God! It's The Best Book I've Ever Read!" This made me both suspicious and intrigued. Zay ...

Angels: A Novel

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 2002

A Life of Wonders...
In "Angels" I think Denis Johnson is focusing on the mystery of being a particular self, and questioning how much of the stuff that goes together to make a self is actually that person's own doing. His vehicle for this exploration is the underbelly of the USA, and ...

Tree of Smoke: A Novel

Denis Johnson

Picador, 2008

"War and Peace" for the United States
Judging from the distribution of reviews, most people either love "Tree of Smoke" or hate it. I loved it. In fact, it's the best contemporary novel I've read in years. Like "War and Peace," "Tree of Smoke" examines both the universals of human life and a war ...

Nobody Move: A Novel
Denis Johnson

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009

From the National Book Award?winning, bestselling author of Tree of Smoke comes a provocative thriller set in the American West. Nobody Move , which first appeared in the pages of Playboy , is the story of an assortment of lowlifes in Bakersfield, California, and their cat-and-mouse game over $2.3 million. Touched by echoes of Raymond ...

Darwinism Defeated?

Phillip E. Johnson, Denis O. Lamoureux

Regent College Publishing, 1999

Johnson on Trial
I cut my theological teeth on the Origins debate. As an Evangelical and a student of biological science, I soon supped upon a steady diet of Phillip Johnson and Michael Behe. I shared Johnson's outrage at an academic world with atheistic assumptions. I revelled in ...

Shoppers: Two Plays by Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 2002

Second-Rate Sam Shepherd--With Promise
You have to hand it to the author, he's found a rich vein of critically acclaimed theater to ape in his debut as a playwright. These two plays, with shared characters between them, pluck some of the most pleasing tropes of Sam Shepherd's more cogent writing (criminal ...

The Stars at Noon

Denis Johnson

Harper Perennial, 1995

Vastly underrated
This is easily some of Johnson's best work. Granted, it's short, and there may not be enough space to develop such an ambitious story in such a setting, but I think he selects all the right details. One sentence is enough to bring some strange corner of a horrifyingly ...