I have been obsessing over Denis Johnson this month. He has yet to disappoint me. Of all his work that I've read, though, "Already Dead" is the one that made the largest impact on me. It is one of those novels that you pick up and can not put down. The kind of book you feign illness and cancel plans with friends to stay in and read. Some of the mystical/spiritual aspects are a little hippy-dippy, but I didn't mind for once as it was in keeping with the Southern California feel of the book. Johnson never shies from tragedy and is a master of depicting lost souls, but this book takes his writing to a new plane. The prose is painfully, brutally beautiful and the issues he's dealing with here -- death, conscience, redemption -- are explored in a much more profound and honest way than most contemporary authors are capable of. Highly recommended.