Rating: 
Summary: Post Modernism/Harsh Realism at its finest
Review: I originally bought this novella in '98 for a quick book report in high school. I was going to spread out my efforts over a week. I read the first story and devoured the book twice in the first night. I'm a creative writing minor at Chico State University, California. If I were to state any influences, Dennis Johnson--and especially this book--would be it. He writes in a poetic-prose that's hypnotizing. When I dug into the first paragraph of "Hitchhiking in the Rain," I was the cobra and Johnson was the flutist. In short, if you like gritty, drug laden prose, buy this book. If not, go back to your Anne Rice novels and leave the true lovers of literature to their devices.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Damaged
Review: Probably the best book I've read. Johnson explodes any idea of narrative and plot, picking through the remains to create a hazy, sad world of junkies and loners. In every sentence he seems to find some new, uncut gem in the language- like an alien suddenly fluent in English. Sometimes scary, sometimes ugly, sometimes doe-eyed, it's hard to say what the book is; it's not a novel, not a collage, and not just a collection of short stories. Screwed-up and great.
Rating:
Summary: Dreamreading
Review: The experience was more like dreaming than reading. The story and imagery flowed swiftly and vividly through my mind with its own peculiar logic which seems irrational yet absolutely true to life. I was somewhat saddened when the final word passed and I had to rejoin the waking world. After many months, I still recall scenes from the book, as I might recall vivid dreams from my childhood. Explainations of what this book is "about" are futile. Pick it up and experience it for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast, intense read.
Review: Jesus' son is a very short collection of short stories that should take the average reader no time to get through. It is great in two ways. First, it is very effective in demonstrating the lost and agitated mindset of a drug-addicted lovable loser bumbling his way through the '70's. Second, Johnson's writing manages to be somehow both florid and lean, with exactly the right details magnified for effect. A quick, but engrossing read, Jesus' Son could be a 5-star book, but it's too short.
Rating:
Summary: It was a dark and funny novel...
Review: A very funny novel about (what else) the twisted yet profound labyrinths of human nature. Jesus' Son is a must-read. My only complaint is that the book is a mere 179 pages long. I read it cover to cover in a day. The movie version was excellent as well. Both are highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Junkie life
Review: This is one of the great works of fiction of the last quarter century. I've owned three copies of this book, and have lost all three so far. Two went out on permanent loan to friends, and another got run through the washer because I carried it around in my pocket with me all the time. Don't just read it. Reread it. And while you're at it, buy Johnson's other great book "Angels."
Rating: 
Summary: All These Weirdos And Me Getting A Little Better Everyday...
Review: Jesus' Son is a collection of short stories about the days, deeds, and drugs of a junky. Although our addicted narrator is left anonymous, we feel that we get to know him on a quite intimate level. The first story, "The Crash", starts out with the narrator getting a ride across the Mid-west from a young couple with two children, when they ram into an enormous truck and kill its driver "forever". All our junky can do is remark on the lung-capacity of the driver's widow as she wails in anguish over her husband's death. From there, we hear about his escapades at various bars, chasing after dealers who sold him impotent drugs with a gun that might explode in his hands. He attends a mournful gathering for a friend who was convicted of armed robbery, only to find out that the man was actually acquitted of his crimes. The man ends up over-dosing a couple of years later, anyway. As the stories progress, we find out that our hero was once married, but he seems to have lost his wife along the way, along with most of his money. His escapades to earn money to support his habit include stripping copper wires from the inside of a house with his friend, as well as a lax job working in a hospital emergency room. In his attempts to rise above mediocrity, the narrator tries to save the life of a friend who was shot in the stomach by a tempermental other friend, only to have the friend die on the way. 'I'm glad he's dead,' he tells the friend's killer.... Yet his compassion surfaces as he says of the murderer, 'Will you believe me when I tell you there was kindness in his heart?' But his life seems to keep spiraling downwards as he loses his mind, his girlfriend, and the baby they aborted--as well as some baby rabbits. In the end, he is checked into emergency rehab. because of a horse-sized psychedelic mushroom he swallowed on a train. From here, his life is not a flowering redemption yet an even keel of stability. He goes to AA meetings and gets a job volunteering at a home for retired people. On his way home from work, he spies on a Mennonite couple, hoping to watch them make love. All he can really do is try to make it through each day without drugs and recover from his impervious, removed distance from the world. This was the first book I had ever read by Denis Johnson and I thought it was very insightful. There were a lot of really great quotes such as, "I was certain I was here in this world because I couldn't tolerate any other place" and "All these weirdoes, and me getting a little better everyday right in the midst of them". You really understood the perspective of a man who felt like he was an outsider in the world and therefore, anonymous in the book. However, I had a little trouble with the plot. The interactions with the other characters seemed to be sort of flat, and the narrator just seemed to drift from place-to-place with the stories having little connection to each other. Perhaps this is the way a junky's life really is, it was just kind of hard to read. The philosophy and format were incredible, and for someone who has had a drug problem, this probably would be dead-on. Perhaps, in a novel format, Denis Johnson can tighten up his writing a bit and make it fit together better.
Rating:
Summary: Universal and Brilliant
Review: Initially, I was a little wary of sampling yet another foray into drug culture, for this is how the book comes billed - don't be misled, the scenario of seediness and drugs is contingent: Johnson places his character in extreme situations (both internal and external situations) in order for his decisions to matter, and they do, they matter deeply, as do his thoughts and words. Here is a character who is lost and who is searching, and who has the courage to face what constitutes himself, however appalling that may prove to be. There is also much humour, and a good measure of tolerance.
*
Also, contrary to some opinions, the stories are structured, with startling juxtapositions of seemingly incongruent ideas actually shedding insight one upon the other, and signalling where the narrator's capacity for direct examination falters, being replaced by an examination of the so-called external world. The word surface is spare and lyrical and beautiful. There really seems to be no reason to avoid reading this book.
*
The film pales in comparison. The hardcover edition is printed on good quality stock with a complementary cover design, while the paperback takes sad advantage of the possibility of recycling toilet paper, the somewhat brown pages partially disintegrating under the gentle touch of the reader's hand.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly intriguing short fiction
Review: This book was recommended to a short story writing class I was in, and I can't say that I wasn't a little skeptical about the promise the book held. Needless to say, I was blown away by the way Johnson writes. It seems like you're reading one long flowing poem. He even manages to make some of the more graphic imagery in the novel seem beautiful, something that is quite hard to do. There's something really interesting in the way Johnson makes the reader connect with a drug addict who obviously has no direction in life. This book is nowhere near as haunting as Requiem for a Dream, but it engages the reader nonetheless, carrying them through an entire book before they even realize they're near the ending. There so much going on in this book, as is the case with most post-modern (minimalist) books. Johnson seems to have a mastery of the sub-genre that Raymond Carver popularized. I love this book, and recommend it highly to anyone that has read Requiem for a Dream, or any of the works of Carver. You will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: General Review of Johnson
Review: Jesus' Son was the first thing I ever read of Johnson's. Whether writing short stories (Jesus' Son) or novels (Already Dead, etc.)it is always apparent Denis Johnson is truly a poet (The Throne of the Third Heaven). Each word is written precisely, with excruciating accuracy and beauty. It sometimes takes time to get through his work, but it's worth it.
|
