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Resuscitation Of A Hanged Man
Thematically ambitious and written with virtuoso style, this book probes the mysteries of faith, hope, and love in a work of stirring resonance and great beauty--a memorable achievement.es hard-boiled theology and a redeeming wit--the perfect spiritual tonics for tough times".--Kirkus Reviews.
Published
(first published 1991)
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This is an amazing book. Excerpt:
"And I asked myself: The way you are now, would your eight-year-old self approve of you? Would your eight-year-old self -- that totally innocent child, with those ideals that are real, man, and human -- would he approve?"
The tall thin man got up and headed out the door.
"No fucking way. I was betraying that kid," Phil said, "my childhood self. I'm talking about the real feeling of like if you stuck a bayonet in your buddy's back, not just ripping off a friend or s...more
"And I asked myself: The way you are now, would your eight-year-old self approve of you? Would your eight-year-old self -- that totally innocent child, with those ideals that are real, man, and human -- would he approve?"
The tall thin man got up and headed out the door.
"No fucking way. I was betraying that kid," Phil said, "my childhood self. I'm talking about the real feeling of like if you stuck a bayonet in your buddy's back, not just ripping off a friend or s...more
Nov 23, 2012
Tyler Jones
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-that-changed-my-life
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Leonard English, the flawed hero of Johnson’s darkly comic novel, moves to Cape Cod’s Provincetown during the winter lull following the suicide attempt suggested in the novel’s title. Beginning one job as a night DJ at the local radio station and another as an assistant to a private detective, English often finds himself wandering Provincetown’s late-night streets, and is quickly caught up in the tight social circle of any off-season tourist town. Throw in a missing artist, a star-crossed love t...more
I really wanted to read Denis Johnson’s newest--Tree of Smoke, but I didn’t want to spring $27.00 for the hardback, and my library didn’t have it available right away, so I grabbed Resuscitation of a Hanged Man in the interim. I’d never read anything else by this prolific writer, and a reviewer of Tree said that Johnson was his favorite living author. Jumping into Resuscitation was a good move on my part.
In the world of this early (published 1995, set in 1980-81), everything is off kilter, whic...more
In the world of this early (published 1995, set in 1980-81), everything is off kilter, whic...more
This is the the first novel I've read by Denis Johnson (The Name of the World and Nobody Move were novellas), but the quality of Resuscitation remains consistent (though there, I'd be sort of working in retrospect, as the latter was published long before the others—I digress).
It's clear to me after reading this and Johnson's other work that he is a master of the humorous realism of everyday, original conversation. Often his characters become distracted from the subject of conversation—in this c...more
It's clear to me after reading this and Johnson's other work that he is a master of the humorous realism of everyday, original conversation. Often his characters become distracted from the subject of conversation—in this c...more
Johnson's grinding journey into the sepulcher of modern American spiritualism is a harsh path to follow, but the authors mastery of disintegration is enthralling.
Constantly flirting with poetry, his prose retains the hard edges needed to make it vivid and by turns exhausting and awakening.
The central character bears heavy themes in an unhinged, pansexual and progressively, surreally spiritual geography of the fringe.
Really, a poetry of salvaged lives in an increasingly complex world.
Where is th...more
Constantly flirting with poetry, his prose retains the hard edges needed to make it vivid and by turns exhausting and awakening.
The central character bears heavy themes in an unhinged, pansexual and progressively, surreally spiritual geography of the fringe.
Really, a poetry of salvaged lives in an increasingly complex world.
Where is th...more
I have tried several other Johnson novels, and this is without question his best. The only thing that compares to it is Jesus' Son, the short story collection. Still, for my money, this is not only Johnson's best book, it is one of the 20th century's greatest novels. Superficially, the story is an utterly pessimistic novel lacking any moral center, the sort of novel that the late John Gardner might have condemned, along with so much contemporary American fiction, as "cynical and escapist." The n...more
provincetown was a cool setting for a total wreck of a dude. picked pace up at end-
"I'll tell you what I feel like, kissing you," he said to her. "I feel like somebody's writing swear words on my balls."
--
Suddenly his eyes burned, he felt sexy, and he wanted to take off his clothes and dance around, fondling himself and screaming. In a while he did exactly that; he tossed aside his garments, even his shoes and socks, and for a few minutes, until he got too cold, he pirouetted whitely through the...more
"I'll tell you what I feel like, kissing you," he said to her. "I feel like somebody's writing swear words on my balls."
--
Suddenly his eyes burned, he felt sexy, and he wanted to take off his clothes and dance around, fondling himself and screaming. In a while he did exactly that; he tossed aside his garments, even his shoes and socks, and for a few minutes, until he got too cold, he pirouetted whitely through the...more
Jun 02, 2009
Sarah
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people who like detectives and explicit sex but don't like religion
by turns strange, funny, eerie, and really gross (i'm lending the book to my mom and there is a section on animals in test laboratories that i am just marking for her as not to read because it would upset her too much), this neo-noir detective story is written in a direct and beautiful style. Like many of Johnson's other books, it explores the sometimes creepy conspiracy-like elements of religion and why people keep trying to find faith even when they barely have it (but it explores this in an i...more
I'll admit that I'm jealous of Denis Johnson. Jesus' Son is one of my favorite collections of short stories because its prose has a kind of powderkeg efficiency that I admire, and because nobody does shellshock quite like Johnson.
That said, this book drove me up the wall. While many moments in it were sharply precise, even lyrical, the novel suffers from too much distance from its main character, and hamhandedly gestures towards a satire of spiritual determinism that comes off as a little half-...more
That said, this book drove me up the wall. While many moments in it were sharply precise, even lyrical, the novel suffers from too much distance from its main character, and hamhandedly gestures towards a satire of spiritual determinism that comes off as a little half-...more
Aug 12, 2009
Matthew
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
hilarious,
detectives
Gradaully I realized I was reading a detective novel, and having a lot of fun.
I've read three books by Johnson now and am impressed with how different they all are. What they share in common is exploration of unexpected places in the United States, in this case Cape Cod and a little bit of Franconia Notch, New Hampshire.
Every character in this book is peculiar in a believable way and often hilarious. The characters speak the type of dialogue that you automatically hear in your mind - and once th...more
I've read three books by Johnson now and am impressed with how different they all are. What they share in common is exploration of unexpected places in the United States, in this case Cape Cod and a little bit of Franconia Notch, New Hampshire.
Every character in this book is peculiar in a believable way and often hilarious. The characters speak the type of dialogue that you automatically hear in your mind - and once th...more
This book was written as if a white male in his early 30's diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia in the midst of florid psychosis attempted to document his life by dictating it to a white male in his early 20's who is just trying his hand at writing but really thinks he's hot shit.
hmmm, I'm not sure about this one. Its a weird one. Even by Denis Johnson standards its a real weird one. I'll probably read it again in 2 years and like it a lot more, but I was kind of lost during this. But the writing is great and no one writes about people having nervous breakdowns better than Denis Johnson, but I wasn't as affected by it as his other books.
This book was quite enjoyable. It is impossible not to get submerged into the story, Johnson hooks you and never lets go. Denis Johnson is a master of the English language. It seems like every word is necessary for the story. Johnson has a focus on providing the reader a well-written novel that lacks useless page-filling words. Resuscitation of a Hanged Man makes you question your own life. This book is truly a work of art. A+ for Denis Johnson and Resuscitation of a Hanged Man.
Leave it to Johnson to give us a book as insane as the main character of this one. It sucked me in, but I definitely felt Lenny's confusion. He's nuts...there's just no other way to say it. The book is wild, and good. Johnson has lived up to his reputation yet again.
A pseudo-detective stories that mashes Catholic contrition, queer sexuality and paranoid schizophrenia in a blender. I thought it was a great head-trip. I felt the psychosis just oozing from this story, especially leading up to the unexpected climax.
Very, very good, almost a Pynchony ripoff with some heavy religious undertones. The looming disastrous ending is rather lackluster. I'm interested to read his other stuff, though, has some potential and this novel was very early.
Leonard English is a wonderful sad-sack character and being inside his head as he opens up to possibilities of being in a world far different than he ever imagined back in Lawrence Kansas is so much excellent good fun.
A prototypical Denis Johnson novel: a quick, engaging read, from the prospective of a lost loser with an uncanny American sense, yet even more skewed, of spirituality and religion.
A pleasant enough tale of life in a small town by the Cape Cod beach, invaded by hordes of celebrating transvestites and butch girls every summer, and wistfully observed through the eyes of a man who didn't die when he hanged himself back in Kansas. He tries to get involved with one of the girls, but she's not monogamous, and he is. He's also doing detective work for his boss, the owner of a radio station, and it leads him to find out about some mysterious militia group and a missing amateur art...more
A hot mess of a book by a very talented writer. My analogy would be: "Jesus' Son" is to "Catch-22" as "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man" is to "Something Happened".
Dec 19, 2008
Cricket
added it
This book came highly recommended and it didn't disappoint. The story was intense and compelling and I loved the descriptions of Provincetown in the winter.
loved the last half, but started a little slow for me. I always enjoy DJ's books better the second time, as I suspect would be the case with this one
The beginning and the end were awesome. It lost some steam in the middle.
it may have been very interesting. but i'm not quite sure.
I'm real close to giving this book 5 stars - the story itself is crazy and wonderful and engaging (a book to really gobble), the writing is absolutely masterful, the characters bizzare and unique - I guess I just didn't particularly dig the end. Don't know what I expected or how it couldn't been different, but there ya go, that's my honest feeling. In any case, maybe it wasn't totally amazing, but I did *love* the experience reading it. I've become a total fan of Denis Johnson.
"Attempted murder. Also sea piracy."
I decided, last night, not to finish this book (I got over half way through.) The main character is so sad and confused that it started really bumming me out. The writing itself was intriguing and quite poetic. I enjoyed the monologue/dialogue and some of the descriptions used, but it just wasn’t enough to keep me reading. This book is so depressing and boring that just thinking about it is causing me angst.
Jun 02, 2007
--Ed.
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
writers who want to write about crazy people
I learned from this book that Denis Johnson can indeed write a novel every bit as good as his short story collection, Jesus' Son. It's about a guy living in Provincetown, MA during the offseason, working part-time as a radio dj, part-time for a private investigator. Sounds like it would be over the top, but people who have read Jesus' Son know DJ is more of a master of hallucinatory, poetic prose.
Love Denis Johnson. So bleak and beautiful with bits of poetry and always bits that make me laugh.
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Poet, playwright and author Denis Johnson was born in Munich, West Germany in 1949 and was raised in Tokyo, Manila and Washington. He holds a masters' degree from the University of Iowa and has received many awards for his work, including a Lannan Fellowship in Fiction (1993), a Whiting Writer's Award (1986), the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction from the Paris Review for Train Dreams, and most recently,...more
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“This wasn't the sea of the inexorable horizon and smashing waves, not the sea of distance and violence, but the sea of the etenally leveling patience and wetness of water. Whether it comes to you in a storm or in a cup, it owns you--we are more water than dust. It is our origin and our destination.”
—
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