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A review by couuboy
Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson
4.0
At times I felt the influence of Carver and other times of Gass, but also throughout all of these stories was its own distinct, singular tone. Denis Johnson paints a world that you want to believe is 2-dimensional but which always ends up taking the bleak shape you felt it would all along. There is an architectonic linking all the stories in this collection which can basically be distilled to the narrators 'chewed up and spat out' ontology, which is what maintains the bleakness but also what maintains the poetics.
I first came across Johnson in an anthology of experimental fiction with the story "Car Crash While Hitchhiking" (which is the first story in this collection) and knew that if any of his other works were even half as impressive they would be worth reading. I stand by this claim although I must say that Car Crash probably remains the clear standout (this is not to say that other stories didn't come close - Dirty Wedding and Emergency often coming very close).
I won't say any more of my own words and will instead drop a few quotes that I believe particularly demonstrate the genius that lurks.
"I could understand how a drowning man might suddenly feel a deep thirst being quenched."
"No more pretending for him! He was completely and openly a mess. Meanwhile the rest of us go on trying to fool each other."
"All these weirdos, and me getting a little better every day right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us."
"The three of us had formed a group based on something erroneous, some basic misunderstanding that hadn't yet come to light, and so we kept on in one another's company, going to bars and having conversations."
"I know there are people who believe that wherever you look, all you see is yourself. Episodes like this make me wonder if they aren't right."
I first came across Johnson in an anthology of experimental fiction with the story "Car Crash While Hitchhiking" (which is the first story in this collection) and knew that if any of his other works were even half as impressive they would be worth reading. I stand by this claim although I must say that Car Crash probably remains the clear standout (this is not to say that other stories didn't come close - Dirty Wedding and Emergency often coming very close).
I won't say any more of my own words and will instead drop a few quotes that I believe particularly demonstrate the genius that lurks.
"I could understand how a drowning man might suddenly feel a deep thirst being quenched."
"No more pretending for him! He was completely and openly a mess. Meanwhile the rest of us go on trying to fool each other."
"All these weirdos, and me getting a little better every day right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us."
"The three of us had formed a group based on something erroneous, some basic misunderstanding that hadn't yet come to light, and so we kept on in one another's company, going to bars and having conversations."
"I know there are people who believe that wherever you look, all you see is yourself. Episodes like this make me wonder if they aren't right."