About the Author

Denis Johnson has been a political journalist and has taught writing courses at Iowa university. He is the recipient of a Lannan Fellowship and a Whiting Writer's Award.

Reviews

'To put the matter simply, Denis Johnson is one of the best and most compelling novelists in the nation' Elle 'Johnson's unique lyricism lights up his book's interior world... There's no doubt about the power of this writer's vision' Robert Stone, New York Times 'An utterly brilliant and original talent, a novelist who reminds us just how wonderful fiction can be' Philadelphia Inquirer 'How easy it is to forget, with all the trivia in print cluttering our lives, that words can be this supple, a vehicle for transcendent healing.' Los Angeles Times 'Johnson moves this sweet and thoughtful story briskly and with grace....his genius is accessible and it lights things up. His words move.' Boston Globe 'Spare and heart-scraping...There is no doubt that Denis Johnson is one of our most inventive, unpredictable and daring scribes of the extremes of destruction and redemption' Miami Herald

'To put the matter simply, Denis Johnson is one of the best and most compelling novelists in the nation' Elle 'Johnson's unique lyricism lights up his book's interior world... There's no doubt about the power of this writer's vision' Robert Stone, New York Times 'An utterly brilliant and original talent, a novelist who reminds us just how wonderful fiction can be' Philadelphia Inquirer 'How easy it is to forget, with all the trivia in print cluttering our lives, that words can be this supple, a vehicle for transcendent healing.' Los Angeles Times 'Johnson moves this sweet and thoughtful story briskly and with grace....his genius is accessible and it lights things up. His words move.' Boston Globe 'Spare and heart-scraping...There is no doubt that Denis Johnson is one of our most inventive, unpredictable and daring scribes of the extremes of destruction and redemption' Miami Herald

Spare, introspective and arresting, Johnson's (Jesus' Son; Already Dead) new novel explores a middle-aged college professor's attempts to come to terms with the gruesome twist of fate that has robbed him of his family. After losing his wife, Anne, and daughter, Elsie, in a tragic automobile accident, ex-political speechwriter Mike Reed seeks refuge in the insular world of academia. Cloistered deep in the bosom of an unnamed Midwestern university, he teaches history, halfheartedly tries to obtain a research grant and reflects morosely on his losses. In episodic vignettes, Mike fails to impress his departmental superiors with his professorial aptitude, visits a Native American casino where he gets involved in a pointless barroom imbroglio, and becomes obsessed with the eccentric but spirited Flower Cannon, a sexy red-headed student/performance-artist/cellist/stripper. Johnson depicts Mike's emotional paralysis and anguished bouts of uncertain self-exploration with pellucid clarity and uncommon sensitivity. His gift for restrained yet elegant prose is evident, as is his ability to blend erudite reflection with hints of humor. A simple painting, charting a gradually deteriorating geometric progression, that Mike encounters in a campus museum early in the novel leads him to half-seriously opine that the picture "illustrated the church's grotesque pearling around its traditional heart, explained the pernicious extrapolating rules and observances of governmentsÄimplicated all of us in a gradual apostasy from every perfect thing we find or make." Though some may find it pretentious, the novel is crammed with similar observations mixing cynicism and self-aware humor, ambitious theorizing and multidisciplinary savvy. In the end, Johnson's eloquent examination of one man's persistent inability to extricate himself from the tenacity of grief manages to be both lyrical and raw. (July) FYI: A movie based on Jesus' Son will open in June. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.