Scan barcode
kingbob's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
cushingrr's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
aleatorizzy's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I enjoyed this one leaps better than train dreams and definitely thought there was more richness in the text itself. By the middle of the book I was eating it up but also having to read it very slowly, Johnson’s lines look so simple on the surface but they build and build into something extraordinary. i felt myself rereading many many sections just to try and fully understand an absorb the poetry of each sentence. i was so excited to feel this excited about a book again!
alexhaydon's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
After reading Train Dreams I was very certain I was going to appreciate a full length novel from Johnson and Angels didn't let me down. The subject matter is very dark and bleak as I had anticipated but I didn't at all feel bogged down by it. I can be quite sensitive to topically challenging reads but Johnson's style of storytelling doesn't make the experience too suffocating in my opinion. He has a knack for telescopic prose which constantly refocus your attention to different sentiments or events with varying degrees of gravity. His characters feel extremely real, and whilst you may not feel emotionally invested in them individually, you can't help but feel a bit breathless overseeing all the ways in which they navigate their circumstances. Johnson pairs lyrical writing in and amongst paired back passages that state things as they are. A perfect mirroring of the lives of our protagonists. Recommend to those who like gritty, American literature
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Rape
mgilhart's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
assyrians's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
helena_handbasket's review against another edition
4.0
Angels is Johnson's first novel, and I suppose it shows, just a bit. I found myself skimming a little through the first sixty pages or so. The writing seemed a little hesitant or maybe it rang a bit false for me through the beginning. By the middle and end of the book, I was hooked.
Angels is the sad story of two people on the fringes of society: Jamie, escaping what she thinks is a terrible life with her two young daughters and Bill Houston, a drifter ex-military, ex-con, alcoholic looking for his next high and easy money. The two meet on a cross country greyhound bus and despite Jamie having sworn off men, she's charmed by Bill Houston and decides to hang out with him a while.
The thing about Denis Johnson's characters is that they're so real and gritty. He creates these realistic characters, low lives, some might say- but he does so with grace and understanding. Above all, they are humans and Johnson forces the reader to empathize and see them as humans, despite their shortcomings.
I rated this four stars initially, but some passages deserve nothing less than five stars- I can't stop thinking about one passage in particular where I had to stop reading as I realized what it would truly be like to lose your mind. The horror and powerlessness of how that would feel in brief moments of lucidity was absolutely perfectly rendered by Johnson, and it was terrifying (The Yellow Wallpaper by Gilman comes close, but not quite). How we can be controlled by our desires, no matter what they are, and miss what is all around us right here and now and what a terrible shame that is, how we piss it all away in out pursuit of other, better things. How in a moment, a split second, our lives can fall apart and how you can't take that moment back. How it feels to be utterly powerless.
I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that I don't know how a person could read through Bill Houston's last chapters and not be affected, even if it just makes you pause and think.
A book that will stay with me a long time, just as Jesus' Son has.
Angels is the sad story of two people on the fringes of society: Jamie, escaping what she thinks is a terrible life with her two young daughters and Bill Houston, a drifter ex-military, ex-con, alcoholic looking for his next high and easy money. The two meet on a cross country greyhound bus and despite Jamie having sworn off men, she's charmed by Bill Houston and decides to hang out with him a while.
The thing about Denis Johnson's characters is that they're so real and gritty. He creates these realistic characters, low lives, some might say- but he does so with grace and understanding. Above all, they are humans and Johnson forces the reader to empathize and see them as humans, despite their shortcomings.
I rated this four stars initially, but some passages deserve nothing less than five stars- I can't stop thinking about one passage in particular where I had to stop reading as I realized what it would truly be like to lose your mind. The horror and powerlessness of how that would feel in brief moments of lucidity was absolutely perfectly rendered by Johnson, and it was terrifying (The Yellow Wallpaper by Gilman comes close, but not quite). How we can be controlled by our desires, no matter what they are, and miss what is all around us right here and now and what a terrible shame that is, how we piss it all away in out pursuit of other, better things. How in a moment, a split second, our lives can fall apart and how you can't take that moment back. How it feels to be utterly powerless.
I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that I don't know how a person could read through Bill Houston's last chapters and not be affected, even if it just makes you pause and think.
A book that will stay with me a long time, just as Jesus' Son has.
johndiconsiglio's review against another edition
3.0
The late-great Denis Johnson’s 1983 debut novel may not burn with the white-hot brilliance of his masterpiece Jesus’ Son, but you can see the fire on the horizon. He’s painting on a violent, hopeless landscape of ex-cons, addicts & bank robbers sliding from Greyhound buses & cheap motels to prison cells and psych wards. Johnson’s genius—in addition to his part-precise/part-hallucinatory language—was his talent for finding something redemptive among the wretched. He’s got his work cut out for him here. These are not nice people. A portrait of the artist as a not-so-young craftsman.