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chillcox15's review against another edition
5.0
I was caught off-guard by how much I loved The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, considering I am only faintly appreciative of Jesus' Son and didn't like Train Dreams. Each of the five stories in this book, though, wowed me in many different ways. In the first story and again in the last two stories, Johnson seems to be wrestling with, and wringing humor out of, his aging and status as an achieved member of the literary/academic elite. The title story has some titillating experimentation with collage style narrative. In the second and third stories, The Starlight on Idaho and Strangler Bob, he's dealing with the hard-edged fiction of Jesus' Son, dealing with men in and out of the carceral state, and they were maybe the most aesthetically similar, but I don't hold that against them. The last story, "Dopplëganger, Poltergeist" was a mindblowingly excellent dissection of the American myth of Elvis, and our national nightmare of 9/11 and it should be put alongside Steve Erickson's Shadowbahn as a companion piece. Overall, a magnificent last collection of fiction from an author I'm eager to return to now and forever.
johnbradley2's review against another edition
5.0
An absolutely amazing collection, especially the final two stories. Well worth a read.
mosmoe's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kpierce94010's review against another edition
4.0
I had never heard of Denis Johnson, but this book was on a list of 2018 books appearing on the most "Best Books of the Year". Overall I enjoyed the stories, some more than others, as is usually the case.
ericfheiman's review against another edition
5.0
(4.5 stars) Not quite Jesus’ Son—but, then again, what is?
mjgriffinii74656's review against another edition
1.0
I’m struggling to see how this book was a finalist for any awards. Like, really.
johndiconsiglio's review against another edition
4.0
The late great Denis Johnson is beloved for Jesus’ Son. (Is it embraced beyond writing seminars? I’m not sure next-gen readers have discovered it.) This worthy posthumous collection picks up where those lost souls left off—older, but not much wiser. If these stories don’t burn with the same white hot genius, they have a weary compassion for life’s losers—prisoners, addicts, poor bastards haunted by wrong turns. They mostly deal with mortality, eerie given Johnson’s death from cancer in 2017. “It’s plain to you that at the time I write this, I’m not dead. But maybe by the time you read it.”
avkesner's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve never read Denis Johnson but love him! Listen to the audiobook. It’s awesome.
memigliore's review against another edition
I was listening to it as an audiobook and lost interest. I think it was too hard to keep track as an audiobook and then my library hold ended.