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taliatalksbooks's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Nobody Move by Denis Johnson was super fast paced, but for me, could have been a little more flushed out. There were so many characters introduced so quickly, that it was hard to keep them straight, at least for me. This definitely falls into the genre of seedy crime fiction, filled with suspicious, ill-meaning characters. I didn’t find any of the characters to be lovable, or frankly even likable, which made this book seem much longer than it was. The majority of the book is dialog, which helps with the flow of their conversations, but lacks tags to know who is speaking in a lot of cases. Given that it was hard to keep the characters straight, this made the flow of the dialog seem disjointed, as it was hard to figure out who was talking at any given time. Clearly these characters have no regard for political correctness, and there were definitely a few case of out of date language and slurs that, though they seemed true to character, didn’t make for a very enjoyable reading experience. Overall, it just fell flat for me and wasn’t the most enjoyable crime novels I’ve read especially recently.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Alcohol, Racism, Blood, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual content, Cursing, Drug use, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gore, and Medical content
giliad's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
psheehy's review against another edition
1.0
It's hard to argue against Denis Johnson—novelist, poet, National Book Award winner—and the prospect of a Denis Johnson noir novel is enough to make one salivate with literary delight. Johnson's language is already pretty hard-boiled as is, or at least it maintains a certain stark sensibility that lends itself well to the crime genre. There's always a lot of dirt and grit underneath Johnson's fingernails when he writes. But Nobody Move falls flat of that promise, the promise of a fist-clenching, gut-wrenching, beautifully rendered crime story. Yes, this book is fun, and pop-y, and sexy (it was first serialized in the pages of Playboy), and ultimately very cinematic. One can easily eat it up in just a few sittings, if not one marathon sitting, and it's probably only a matter of time before it's on the big screen. But there's nothing new going on here, nothing that hadn't been done years ago by Dashiell Hammet, or Raymond Chandler, or Jim Thompson.
Jimmy Luntz is this book's anti-hero, a loser in a white tux with a gambling problem. There's a femme fatale, of course, Anita Desilvera, who is as beautiful as she is cold. And there are guns! All that is fine and good, and to be expected, but the real problem with Nobody Move is that it feels noir-ish simply for the sake of being noir-ish. The genre begat the story, and not vice-versa. The novel begins with Luntz in Bakersfield, California, performing in a barbershop chorus. Hence the white tux. But it begs the question: Why a barbershop chorus? It's one of those arbitrary details that reveals the author's hand, a detail too conscious of itself. And lo and behold, the barbershop chorus scene lasts a page-and-a-half before Luntz is off and running. Beyond that, the fact that Luntz is a singer in a barbershop chorus—arguably his most notable character trait, because that's all Johnson really gives the reader—is mostly forgotten. So again, why a barbershop chorus? It reads as an excuse to get the protagonist in a snappy white tux while he ducks and dodges his pursuers. Sure, this makes for some great Lichtenstein-esque cover art, but in the end it's all surface and very little substance. Nobody Move lacks the true zaniness of the best noir novels, the plot twists, the endless parade of characters, the what-did-I-just-read? moments. Most of all, Nobody Move lacks the poetry that Johnson is fully capable of. This book could have been great. It could have challenged and reinvigorated an already strong literary canon. Instead, it got serialized in Playboy.
Jimmy Luntz is this book's anti-hero, a loser in a white tux with a gambling problem. There's a femme fatale, of course, Anita Desilvera, who is as beautiful as she is cold. And there are guns! All that is fine and good, and to be expected, but the real problem with Nobody Move is that it feels noir-ish simply for the sake of being noir-ish. The genre begat the story, and not vice-versa. The novel begins with Luntz in Bakersfield, California, performing in a barbershop chorus. Hence the white tux. But it begs the question: Why a barbershop chorus? It's one of those arbitrary details that reveals the author's hand, a detail too conscious of itself. And lo and behold, the barbershop chorus scene lasts a page-and-a-half before Luntz is off and running. Beyond that, the fact that Luntz is a singer in a barbershop chorus—arguably his most notable character trait, because that's all Johnson really gives the reader—is mostly forgotten. So again, why a barbershop chorus? It reads as an excuse to get the protagonist in a snappy white tux while he ducks and dodges his pursuers. Sure, this makes for some great Lichtenstein-esque cover art, but in the end it's all surface and very little substance. Nobody Move lacks the true zaniness of the best noir novels, the plot twists, the endless parade of characters, the what-did-I-just-read? moments. Most of all, Nobody Move lacks the poetry that Johnson is fully capable of. This book could have been great. It could have challenged and reinvigorated an already strong literary canon. Instead, it got serialized in Playboy.
pierceinverarity's review against another edition
3.0
A good take on contemporary noir by an accomplished literary author. Good prose and atmosphere, but it didn't entirely click for me. Nothing I've read since Jesus' Son seems to live up to Johnson's full potential (including Tree of Smoke), but this is certainly worth a read.
joeholmes's review against another edition
2.0
Johnson is channeling Elmore Leonard here, and while he's got some terrific dialog and quirky characters, the story runs along a pretty narrow thread of a plot, never catching me up in its machinations, and never getting me rooting for any of its various seedy characters.
sandin954's review against another edition
3.0
This had two things going for it, it was short and had Will Patton narrating the audio version.
drecords's review against another edition
3.0
Entertaining and quick. I bought it because I noticed it was dedicated to my film teacher at Fordham.