Jesus' Son

Johnson, Denis

ISBN 10: 142720571X ISBN 13: 9781427205711

Publisher: Macmillan Audio, 2009

Synopsis

Recently adapted for the screen, this now-classic collection of ten stories from the author of Resuscitation of a Hanged Man and Angels is narrated by a young man, a recovering alcoholic and heroin addict whose dependencies have led him to petty crime, cruelty, betrayal, and various kinds of loss.

About this title

Review:

"In a world of predictable fiction, Jesus' Son is a point-blank godsend.""L.A. Weekly"His prose. . .consistently gnerations imagery of ferocious intensity, much of it shaded with a menacing, even deranged sense of humor. No American novelist since William Burroughs has so flagrantly risked 'insensitivity' in an effort to depict the pathology of addiction.""New York Times Book Review"Denis Johnson is an amazingly talented writer, a synthesizer of profoundly American voices: We can hear Twain in his biting irony, Whitman in his erotic excess, not a little of Dashiell Hammett too in the hard sentences he throws back at his gouged, wounded world. And behind all these you sense something else: a visionary angel, a Kerouac or, better yet, a Blake, who has seen his demon and yearned for God and forged a language to contain them both.""Newsday"Reading these stories is like reading ticker tape from the subconscious."Marianne Wiggins, "The Nation"Denis Johnson's path as a writer--from poetry to the novel to the short story--is an untypical as his vision, but "Jesus' Son may eventually be read not just as a moment in his evolution but as a distinctive turn in the history of the form. He is doing something deeply new in these stories, and the formal novelty brings us into a new intimacy with the violence that is rising around us in this country like the killing waters of a flood.""Atlantic Monthly"The narrator of these interlinked stories is a young man, reelig from his addiction to heroin and alcohol, his mind at once clouded and made gorgeously lucid by these drugs. Dreams blur into real life for this man, hallucinations mimic and merge with reality: a state of affairs that gives Mr. Johnsonample opportunity to display his dazzling gift for poetic language, his natural instinct for metaphor and wordplay."Michiko Kakutani, "New York Times"Denis Johnson's most accessible and accomplished book, from start to finish, without a single sentence that misses the mark.""Los Angeles Times"These tales are told with apparent carelesness, a kind of grinding realism which would suggest that these events are as purposeless as they seem. But at heart Johnson is a metaphysician, and through the luminous windows that startlingly open in the deadpan prose. . .we are bystanders to an act of testimony."Madison Smartt Bell, "USA Today"Intense, vicious, and beautiful, these storeis are fraught with a cutting wit purposefully juxtaposed against the too-big sentimentality of a drunk. Denis Johnson is an exquisite writer."Mary Gaitskill"A work of spare beauty and almost religious intensity.""Entertainment Weekly"Johnson has the distinction of being both a poet and a novelist of gritty realism who uses language like a paring knofe to slice through to the bones of his subject matter....[These stories] are as muscular and tight as a washboard stomach, as resonant as a drum.""People

"Reading these stories is like reading ticker tape from the subconscious."--"The Nation
""A work of spare beauty and almost religious intensity."--"Entertainment Weekly
""Intense, vicious, and beautiful, these stories are fraught with a cutting wit purposefully juxtaposed against the too-big sentimentality of a drunk. Denis Johnson is an exquisite writer."--Mary Gaitskill
"[Dennis Johnson is] a synthesizer of profoundly American voices: we can hear Twain in his biting irony, Whitman in his erotic excess, not a little of Dashiell Hammett too in the hard sentences he throws back at his gouged, wounded world. And behind all these you sense something else: a visionary angel, a Kerouac, or, better yet, a Blake, who has seen his demon and yearned for God and forged a language to contain them both."--"Newsday"
"Ferocious intensity. . . . No American novelist since William Burroughs has so flagrantly risked 'insensitivity' in an effort to depict the pathology of addiction."--"The New York Times Book Review "

"Reading these stories is like reading ticker tape from the subconscious." --"The Nation"

"A work of spare beauty and almost religious intensity." --"Entertainment Weekly"

"Intense, vicious, and beautiful, these stories are fraught with a cutting wit purposefully juxtaposed against the too-big sentimentality of a drunk. Denis Johnson is an exquisite writer." --"Mary Gaitskill"

"[Dennis Johnson is] a synthesizer of profoundly American voices: we can hear Twain in his biting irony, Whitman in his erotic excess, not a little of Dashiell Hammett too in the hard sentences he throws back at his gouged, wounded world. And behind all these you sense something else: a visionary angel, a Kerouac, or, better yet, a Blake, who has seen his demon and yearned for God and forged a language to contain them both." --"Newsday"

"Ferocious intensity. . . . No American novelist since William Burroughs has so flagrantly risked 'insensitivity' in an effort to depict the pathology of addiction." --"The New York Times Book Review"

Reading these stories is like reading ticker tape from the subconscious. "The Nation"

A work of spare beauty and almost religious intensity. "Entertainment Weekly"

Intense, vicious, and beautiful, these stories are fraught with a cutting wit purposefully juxtaposed against the too-big sentimentality of a drunk. Denis Johnson is an exquisite writer. "Mary Gaitskill"

[Dennis Johnson is] a synthesizer of profoundly American voices: we can hear Twain in his biting irony, Whitman in his erotic excess, not a little of Dashiell Hammett too in the hard sentences he throws back at his gouged, wounded world. And behind all these you sense something else: a visionary angel, a Kerouac, or, better yet, a Blake, who has seen his demon and yearned for God and forged a language to contain them both. "Newsday"

Ferocious intensity. . . . No American novelist since William Burroughs has so flagrantly risked 'insensitivity' in an effort to depict the pathology of addiction. "The New York Times Book Review""

Reading these stories is like reading ticker tape from the subconscious. The Nation

A work of spare beauty and almost religious intensity. Entertainment Weekly

Intense, vicious, and beautiful, these stories are fraught with a cutting wit purposefully juxtaposed against the too-big sentimentality of a drunk. Denis Johnson is an exquisite writer. Mary Gaitskill

[Dennis Johnson is] a synthesizer of profoundly American voices: we can hear Twain in his biting irony, Whitman in his erotic excess, not a little of Dashiell Hammett too in the hard sentences he throws back at his gouged, wounded world. And behind all these you sense something else: a visionary angel, a Kerouac, or, better yet, a Blake, who has seen his demon and yearned for God and forged a language to contain them both. Newsday

Ferocious intensity. . . . No American novelist since William Burroughs has so flagrantly risked 'insensitivity' in an effort to depict the pathology of addiction. The New York Times Book Review

"

"Reading these stories is like reading ticker tape from the subconscious." --The Nation

"A work of spare beauty and almost religious intensity." --Entertainment Weekly

"Intense, vicious, and beautiful, these stories are fraught with a cutting wit purposefully juxtaposed against the too-big sentimentality of a drunk. Denis Johnson is an exquisite writer." --Mary Gaitskill

"[Dennis Johnson is] a synthesizer of profoundly American voices: we can hear Twain in his biting irony, Whitman in his erotic excess, not a little of Dashiell Hammett too in the hard sentences he throws back at his gouged, wounded world. And behind all these you sense something else: a visionary angel, a Kerouac, or, better yet, a Blake, who has seen his demon and yearned for God and forged a language to contain them both." --Newsday

"Ferocious intensity. . . . No American novelist since William Burroughs has so flagrantly risked 'insensitivity' in an effort to depict the pathology of addiction." --The New York Times Book Review

About the Author:

DENIS JOHNSON is the author of seven works of fiction, three collections of poetry, and one book of reportage. He is the recipient of a Lannan Fellowship and a Whiting Writers' Award, among many other honors for his work. Will Patton has won two OBIE awards for best actor for the off-Broadway plays, Sam Shepard's Fool for Love and the Public Theatre production of What Did He See? He's appeared in a host of films including A Mighty Heart with Angelina Jolie, Knucklehead, Brooklyn's Finest, and Dog Days of Summer. His many television credits include The Agency, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, 24, and Numb3rs.

An Earphones Award-winner and Audies finalist, Will has narrated audiobooks by such authors as Charles Frazier, Larry McMurtry, Don DeLillo, and Ernest Hemingway. He was named Best Voice in Mystery & Suspense by AudioFile magazine in both 2008 and 2009. Will read Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson for Macmillan Audio.

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 142720571X
• ISBN 13: 9781427205711
• Binding: Audio CD