Jessica's review
Jesus' Son: Stories by Denis Johnson
by Denis Johnson
So is this a You're RIGHT Mr. Myers review?
I have a brand new library copy staring at me.
Take my tip Jessica and steer well clear of Dennis Cooper, another Dennis, whose unpleasant novels are also a) garlanded by critics b) all about nasty junkies but - here's where Mr Cooper scores heavily - c) feature a bunch of paedophilic gay blokes who also enjoy torture and murder. What a charming innovation. You may ask why I touched Mr Cooper with a bargepole - it was that I'm a sucker for critics. Was a sucker for critics. Now I think critics are degenerates.
We can debate this if you want. Or not, you know. Never understood the point of posting a comment which just says "I disagree" and nothing more.
My dislike of Mr Johnson's work is beginning to solidify. I disliked Tree of Smoke, but thought it was just me, all alone against the tide of breathless adulation.
'spose not.
I didn't care for Tree, but I LOVE Jesus -- what Johnson's junkies provide that other run-of-the-mill fictional junkies don't (and, frankly, most of the nonfictional ones I've met, too) is the funny. I'm away from home or I'd drag out my copy for any series of funny asides and lines and images. You'll have to settle for the one rejoinder I can muster from a great distance. The first story ("Car Crash While Hitchhiking") recounts in its fuzzy absurdist imagery as clear and shattering a depiction of a car accident as I've read, or at least that shock and daze you feel walking out of one. And it ends with protagonist (Fuckhead) in the emergency room, a doctor asking him how he's doing, and he hears the cotton balls screaming, and responds to the doctor that he's doing okay.
I've screwed that up in the particulars, and it's the particulars--the dizzy wonder of DJ's prose--that makes it funny. So sue me.
I think this is more dreamlike than Requiem for a Dream, and far more fun. (Wake for a Dream?) And the movie adaptation is pretty damn good, too, as it catches the tone perfectly.
But my rule is: funny junkies Good, sad meaningful junkies Not Good. (I think that rule holds up for degenerates, too.)
Hey, maybe you'd still hate it. But it isn't following the same old pus-laden tracks.
Funny degenerates are the only ones worth knowing.
Full disclosure: I haven't read this since high school.
But my ridiculous antipathy towards junkie lit knows no bounds.... I'm sure this book is awesome.
Jessica's review
Jesus' Son: Stories by Denis Johnson by Denis Johnson
Jessica's review
rating:
recommended for: people who like books about people on heroin
I just hate books about people on heroin. People are crazy about this writer, and he's supposed to be super brilliant and all that, but I really wouldn't know, possibly because I am so dull-witted and overly judgmental and prejudiced. I read this a hundred years ago, and all I remember was being bored out of my skull by a bunch of junkie stories. I guess it's probably amazing or whatever if you can get past that, but I didn't even try. I hate this one genre of fiction, especially short fiction, that is all, "I AM A JUNKIE MY SOCKS ARE SO STINKY I HAVE A SORE ON MY LIP LOOK AT THAT GUY SMASHING THE OTHER GUY OVER THE HEAD WITH A BRICK DIALOGUE DIALOGUE JARRING DESCRIPTION O MAN'S INHUMANITY TO MAN NOW I AM LYING ON THE GRASS IN AN EMPTY LOT LOOKING AT THE CONSTELLATIONS WITH A KITTEN WHILE I SHOOT UP INTO MY FOOT. WHAT CONTRAST! WHAT DEPTH! HOW GRITTY! YET POETIC...." I remember this book of short stories being kind of like that. I could be way off base, but that's the associa...more
So is this a You're RIGHT Mr. Myers review? I have a brand new library copy staring at me.
Take my tip Jessica and steer well clear of Dennis Cooper, another Dennis, whose unpleasant novels are also a) garlanded by critics b) all about nasty junkies but - here's where Mr Cooper scores heavily - c) feature a bunch of paedophilic gay blokes who also enjoy torture and murder. What a charming innovation. You may ask why I touched Mr Cooper with a bargepole - it was that I'm a sucker for critics. Was a sucker for critics. Now I think critics are degenerates.
We can debate this if you want. Or not, you know. Never understood the point of posting a comment which just says "I disagree" and nothing more.
My dislike of Mr Johnson's work is beginning to solidify. I disliked Tree of Smoke, but thought it was just me, all alone against the tide of breathless adulation.'spose not.
I didn't care for Tree, but I LOVE Jesus -- what Johnson's junkies provide that other run-of-the-mill fictional junkies don't (and, frankly, most of the nonfictional ones I've met, too) is the funny. I'm away from home or I'd drag out my copy for any series of funny asides and lines and images. You'll have to settle for the one rejoinder I can muster from a great distance. The first story ("Car Crash While Hitchhiking") recounts in its fuzzy absurdist imagery as clear and shattering a depiction of a car accident as I've read, or at least that shock and daze you feel walking out of one. And it ends with protagonist (Fuckhead) in the emergency room, a doctor asking him how he's doing, and he hears the cotton balls screaming, and responds to the doctor that he's doing okay.
I've screwed that up in the particulars, and it's the particulars--the dizzy wonder of DJ's prose--that makes it funny. So sue me.
I think this is more dreamlike than Requiem for a Dream, and far more fun. (Wake for a Dream?) And the movie adaptation is pretty damn good, too, as it catches the tone perfectly.
But my rule is: funny junkies Good, sad meaningful junkies Not Good. (I think that rule holds up for degenerates, too.)
Hey, maybe you'd still hate it. But it isn't following the same old pus-laden tracks.
Funny degenerates are the only ones worth knowing.
Full disclosure: I haven't read this since high school.But my ridiculous antipathy towards junkie lit knows no bounds.... I'm sure this book is awesome.