Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson (1992)

Denis Johnson died a few days ago (July 1, 1949 to May 24, 2017).  Denis Johnson has often been called "a writer's  writer".   Reading the many memorial articles occasioned by his passing (of liver cancer) he was idolized as someone from whom you could learn how to write fiction.   In the 100 or so Q and A sessions I have done on The Reading Life I always asked each participant what short story writers they admired.  Denis Johnson was very frequently mentioned by the largely Irish writers involved.  I have long had Jesus's Son to my TBR list, sadly it took his death to motivate me to read this amazing work, actually at least as good as the many panegyrics claimed.  

The work consists of eleven short stories, all narrated by a recovering drug addict known only as "Fuckhead". Fuckhead lives in rural America, some say these are very American stories but there is a reason the Irish love them so much, he works at a series of jobs, most memorably as a hospital orderly.  He engages in petty crimes, has romances with women equally addicted.  

This is a terribly funny book, laughing at the horrors and absurdity of the world in which Fuckhead resides.  There are dead end bars, almost everybody dies young, fifty is ancient for a drug addict.  When persons from the "straight" world appear they are presented as ridiculous, like the employees of the hospital in which Fuckhead worked for a while.  Alcohol is the mother's milk of these stories.  Fuckhead and his transient friends are self destructive, some would call them idiots.

These stories are written from Desolation Row.  They are beautiful, the turns in the story are amazing.  I read one article by a writer  who said he had read Jesus's Son over 200 times.  

The title comes from Lou Reed's song "Heroin", I suggest you listen to it as an accompaniment to your reading.  The rush of heroin is a driving force in these stories.

A movie was made based on the stories.  The New Yorker link above contains three podcasts of stories from Jesus's Son.

Mel u

Very Moving Article in The San Francisco Gate

Memorial Article in the Guardian

Denis Johnson's Vision of America. A very perceptive article from The New Republic

My Post on a Short Story by Denis Johnson - The Largesse of the Sea Maiden"

Denis Johnson in The New Yorker- Includes Three Podcasts of his Stories

Please Feel Free to Share Your Experience with Denis Johnson with us

Denis Johnson - July 1, 1949 to May 24, 2017

Christian Kiefer on Denis Johnson

Very Moving Article in The San Francisco Gate

Memorial Article in the Guardian

Denis Johnson's Vision of America. A very perceptive article from The New Republic

My Post on a Short Story by Denis Johnson - The Largesse of the Sea Maiden"

Denis Johnson in The New Yorker- Includes Three Podcasts of his Stories

Please Feel Free to Share Your Experience with Denis Johnson with us

Mel u

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson (March 3, 2014 in The New Yorker)

I offer my great thanks to Max u for providing me a gift subscription to The New Yorker.  This gives me the opportunity to read and share with my readers my thoughts on works by some of the greatest contemporary short story writers in the world.  Whenever I can I will provide a link to the story.  

"Once in a while, I lie there as the television runs, and I read something wild and ancient from one of several collections of folktales I own. Apples that summon sea maidens, eggs that fulfill any wish, and pears that make people grow long noses that fall off again. Then sometimes I get up and don my robe and go out into our quiet neighborhood looking for a magic thread, a magic sword, a magic horse."

Denis Johnson has been mentioned by a number of the short story writers with whom I have done Q and A sessions as a short story writer whose work they greatly admire. I have learned to trust their advise.   I was happy to find a new story by Johnson in a recent issue of The New Yorker. 

"The Largesse of the Sea Maiden" started out a bit slow for me, seeming like kind of a combination of a Cheever and a Carver story about a hard drinking advertising copywriter, formerly of New York City now living in San Diego.  I was not really that taken with the story for the first few pages then as the story began to wander down the dark back streets of New York City, the narrator was there to pick up an award for one of his TV commercials at a ceremony, I came to understand why people like Johnson so much.  Much of the story is taken up with glimpses into the lives of people he meets.  

I will leave the main plot of the story untold so as not to spoil the experience of first time readers.  I for sure hope to read Jesus's Son one day.

You can read this story here:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/03/the-largesse-of-the-sea-maiden

Born in Munich on July 1, 1949, Denis Johnson was raised in Tokyo, Manila, and the suburbs outside of Washington, D.C. He studied with Raymond Carver while earning his MFA from the University of Iowa. While still enrolled, his first collection of poetry, The Man Among the Seals (Stone Wall Press, 1969), was published.

During the next few years, Johnson published several collections of poetry, including Inner Weather (Graywolf, 1976); The Incognito Lounge (Random House, 1982), selected by Mark Strand for The National Poetry Series in 1982; andThe Veil (Knopf, 1985); as well as four novels, including Angels (Knopf, 1983), which received the Sue Kauffman Prize for First Fiction from the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

During this time he struggled with alcoholism and various other addictions. It was out of these experiences that he wrote his breakthrough volume of stories, Jesus’ Son (Harper Perennial, 1992), which was later adapted for the screen.

Please share your experience with Johnson with us.

Mel u