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Jesus' Son: Stories Paperback – February 17, 2009

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Denis Johnson (Author)
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Denis Johnson (Author)
180 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 133 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; First Edition edition (February 17, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 031242874X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312428747
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (180 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Johnson writes like a slummin angel
By paul scholes on December 20, 2003
Format: Paperback
The beauty of Johnson's prose is evident in every one of these stories. The subject matter is dark, depressing, hallucinegenic, and yet the collection's overall feel is uplifting. Johnson could have written some cliched grotesqueries about the drug life, could have piled on the filth and dirt of it all, but he doesn't. The down-and-out characters, most of them junkies and criminals, are given a healthy dose of humanity, where a lesser writer would have turned them into abominable caricatures. Unlike most post modern writers, Johnson cares deeply about his characters and this comes out in every story. He doesn't follow the pomo aesthetic by declaring that life is inherently meaningless or hopeless, far from it. What we come to find in this amazing collection is the presence of hope in all things, no matter how low or degraded things might appear. And that is precisely what Denis Johnson shows us. There is beauty in everything, and if we can't see that, then we are not fully human.
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32 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Stories of Remarkable Intensity and Clarity
By "botatoe" on April 25, 2002
Format: Paperback
I've never read anything by Chuck Palahniuk. I know about him, however, because the movie 'Fight Club' is based upon Palahniuk's novel of the same title. Chuck Palahniuk is a big fan of Denis Johnson's collection of short stories, 'Jesus' Son.' A recent article about Palahniuk in Poets & Writers Magazine says that Palahniuk 'has read 'Jesus' Son' over and over'more than two hundred times.' Palahniuk says, in that article, 'whenever I'm stuck, that's a book I read to sort of jump start myself.'
Palahniuk's endorsement was good enough for me. Any book that someone has read more than two hundred times must be worthwhile, or at least worth taking a look at. Besides, this remarkable collection of short stories is only 160 pages long, the pages are small (I measured it and it was about 7' x 4'), and there are not many words on each page. It doesn't take long to read. If it matters, I also always knew Denis Johnson was out there, a highly regarded poet and novelist, ever since 'Fiskadoro' had been published more than a decade ago. I had to read something by him sometime.
I sat down last night and started reading 'Jesus' Son' and didn't put it down until I was finished. It didn't take me long and was worth every minute. 'Jesus' Son' contains eleven short stories, all written in the first person, all connected by the common voice of the same narrator, a young, strung-out misfit whose pathology permeates every story. The stories are grim, just like the dark, desperate life of the narrator, just like the violent, disconnected, drug-clouded lives of the people who surround him. They are stories in which the narrator seemingly transcends his life, his drug- and alcohol-induced cloud of unknowing illuminating an at times crystalline-pure vision of the world.Read more ›
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Beautiful and Tragic
By Lukas Jackson on December 8, 2003
Format: Paperback
This slim book can easily be read in a few hours. The short stories are all vignettes out of the lives of the addicted and the desperate.
What this book does, better than any other book I've read, is capture the beauty and tragedy of these lost lives. Johnson is great at imagery, whether the misty, sunlit dive bar on a rickety pier, or the deserted drive-in in the snow. He's also great at writing from the inside of these characters-- their tragic worldview makes sense through their eyes. The hallucinatory beauty of these "prose-poems" goes hand-in-hand with the altered perceptions of the characters-- these people live as if in a dream state.
If you're ready to write off people on the fringes of society, then you probably won't appreciate this book. Like he did in "Angels," Johnson takes these forgotten people, and makes them live and breathe on the page. Many times, his characters seem more truly alive than those who would write them off or forget about them.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful
"We can't imagine the shape of our fate, that's for sure."
By Gregory Baird VINE VOICE on February 7, 2007
Format: Paperback
At first, I confess, I didn't know what to make of the stories that make up the collection "Jesus' Son". What does one make of stories about someone who is an addict through and through, determinedly ruining his life because it no longer seems to matter what happens to him? During the first fifty pages I had a visceral reaction to this book that was making me not only dislike it, but become angry at it; why should I care about people who won't help themselves, what is there to like about any of these people, etc. Then I began to notice tiny glimpses of carefully disguised humanism that leaked out of Johnson's prose, and went back to see if I had been missing them all along (sure enough, they had been there the whole time). I can only guess that my initial reaction was too volatile to pick up on subtle nuances of hope, and I am glad that I stuck with it long enough for that to die down because "Jesus' Son" is actually a remarkably heartfelt work despite its visceral tone. The characters are damaged and desperately unhappy people underneath their angry, hardened exteriors -- desperate for a connection that they can't bring themselves to hold on to, nor are they willing to put themselves out to get it. We never get to see why any of them are so damaged, which is mildly frustrating, but since it doesn't matter to the plots of the stories anyway it would have been out of place to get a lot of exposition. The misadventures and sometimes untimely demises of these characters are seen through the eyes of an unnamed narrator who lives among them, drinks with them, does drugs with them, uses them and is used by them. He is angry, confused, and suicidal, making his narration a spellbinding excursion into the pathos of the addict.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Very sad and moving work

Exceptional journey through the depraved mind of a junkie. Very sad and moving work.

Published 19 hours ago by Stephen
Five Stars

Very good book

Published 5 days ago by Meka
Didn't love it, but couldn't put down

There was nothing redeeming about the narrator, but there was something compelling about his story. I recommend this to anyone fascinated by or familiar with addiction, but t the... Read more

Published 20 days ago by Mary Couzens
Denis Johnson seems to be pretty big in colleges

I just finished this book and I have to say that Denis Johnson has an interesting manner in which he writes. Read more

Published 20 days ago by Crea19
Loved these short stories...

Fantastic piece of fiction...inspired me to start writing more creatively and with some serious GUSTO.

Bravo!

Published 1 month ago by M. Sherry
Deep but dark

Enjoyed very much. The stories were deep and rich, full of characters with various issues (drugs, alcohol, poor). Read more

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
This was a great book to buy

This was a great book to buy. I stumbled upon by looking at song lyrics for the velvet underground "heroin" and this was such a lucky find. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Kevin Restrepo
I don't think I read the same book as everyone else.

Meh. The last piece in the book had some soul, but I didn't care much for the rest. He writes well and clearly has some superior skills, but most of the stories aren't about... Read more

Published 2 months ago by D.A.G.
Five Stars

THIS IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK!

Published 3 months ago by Senor Bueno
Yes. This.

Here is some really, really good writing.

It is hard as hell, sort of Bukowski gone darker; younger. Read more

Published 3 months ago by SG

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