Angels: A Novel [Paperback]

Denis Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 30, 2002

The most critically acclaimed, and first, of Denis Johnson's novels, Angels puts Jamie Mays -- a runaway wife toting along two kids -- and Bill Houston -- ex-Navy man, ex-husband, ex-con -- on a Greyhound Bus for a dark, wild ride cross country. Driven by restless souls, bad booze, and desperate needs, Jamie and Bill bounce from bus stations to cheap hotels as they ply the strange, fascinating, and dangerous fringe of American life. Their tickets may say Phoenix, but their inescapable destination is a last stop marked by stunning violence and mind-shattering surprise.

Denis Johnson, known for his portraits of America's dispossessed, sets off literary pyrotechnics on this highway odyssey, lighting the trek with wit and a personal metaphysics that defiantly takes on the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A small masterpiece...prose of amazing power and stylishness' Philip Roth --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

"Denis Johnson is one of our most inventive, unpredictable novelists."

-- The New York Times Book Review

This novel, which suggests a brilliant mixture of William Blake and James M. Cain, established Denis Johnson as a major talent in American fiction, a promise confirmed in his later books Fiskadoro and The Stars at Noon. Jamie Mays and Bill Houston meet on a Greyhound bus. She is fleeing an unfaithful husband and lugging two travel-stained children. He is on the rebound from stints in jail and the navy and looking for "high old times." Together, they make an aimless tour of bus stations and cheap hotels from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, their momentum fueled by booze, rage, and corrosive need, their journey a trajectory that leads inexorably to a moment of shattering violence.

"A small masterpiece... prose of amazing power and stylishness."

-- Philip Roth

"A debut to be celebrated."

-- Washington Post Book World --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Later Printing edition (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780060988821
• ISBN-13: 978-0060988821
• ASIN: 0060988827
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #165,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary debut by a gifted writer September 7, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Frankly, I am hard pressed to think of a better debut novel than "Angels." This ranks in quality of form and substance with, for instance, Graham Greene's "The Heart of the Matter" or "The End of the Affair," the kind of work one would expect in the middle portion of a writer's body of literature. Fans of Johnson's marvelous collection of short stories, "Jesus' Son," will find the pace and language of "Angels" more subdued (although depictions of rape and violence are utterly compelling) and the outrageously mordant humor, more or less, gone. Instead of shocking the reader with frequent brilliant well-timed and well-turned poetic metaphors, as he did with "Jesus' Son," here he allows the prose to develop more subtly--but with equally outstanding results. I find Johnson a somewhat curious author. Clearly, he is a literary genius--one of the great talents of the 20th century and quite possibly the best all-around living American writer. It is obvious in this novel as well as some others, including "Fiskadoro," "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man," and even "Stars at Noon." I get the feeling he could, if he wanted, easily achieve the popular status of, say, a Greene or Hemingway or Carver, but he obviously prefers to remain just slightly left of mainstream (although "Jesus' Son" and "Angels" are quite accessible). Whatever, this, like all of Johnson's works, is a richly rewarding experience. I hope he has many, many more to come.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Life of Wonders... May 8, 2006

By Robert Bezimienny

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

In "Angels" I think Denis Johnson is focusing on the mystery of being a particular self, and questioning how much of the stuff that goes together to make a self is actually that person's own doing. His vehicle for this exploration is the underbelly of the USA, and here he taps into a tradition in American writing stretching through Kerouac, and Fante, Bukowski, Miller and Dreiser, and no doubt many others unfamiliar to me; in a way, a more distant echo is heard in Beckett and his tramps. The wonder of individual consciousness, the experience of subjectivity, is illuminated by making all the gaudy trappings of the world dark.

I've read criticisms of "Angels" bemoaning the sketchy take on the central characters, but I disagree that this is a failing. Johnson gives us enough for us to sympathize and, at times, empathize with his motley cast, and certainly enough to share in their everyday epiphanies, when they see the world fresh and new and each moment appears precious and, by the miracle of Johnson's poetic prose, we see out of their eyes.

Likewise criticism falls upon Bill Houston's fate as being somehow unemotional, but this very fact suggests that we are not simply being asked to consider the ethics of capital punishment, but also to dwell on our own, that is to say everyone's, inevitable fate - the blind certainty of our mortality.

The entire work questions the role of personal will versus that of circumstance in deciding the choices we make. I do not think that a pat answer is provided, instead the question is raised and investigated through the thoughts and deeds of Johnson's miscreants.

All of this is dressed in Johnson's universally praised and delicately wrought language. For me, this novel is a celebration of the power of words to first and foremost communicate - if we gain a window into the souls of "Angels"' lost protagonists, then how much easier to see inside our own, and inside those who surround us.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful literature of the forlorn February 5, 2001

By Quickhappy

Format:Paperback

Beaten down and living for the moment, Denis Johnson's characters scrape out a wretched life of drugs and alcohol, pipe-dreams, and daydreams.

_Angels_ is a world of bus depots and scurrilous strangers, of people who can scarcely see past the haze of their cigarettes. It is a lonely world of randomness and drift. Some might say Johnson's characters aren't "3D", but that's because they're so richly flat. And when Johnson takes us into Jamie's descent into madness, it is a mind-bending trip.

Yet somehow, Johnson's writing left me exhilerated and happy. I enjoyed this book immensely and had trouble putting it down--I would rank it among the best I've read over the last five years.