The Stars at Noon [Hardcover]

Denis Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 1986

Set in Nicaragua in 1984, The Stars at Noon is a story of passion, fear, and betrayal told in the voice of an American woman whose mission in Central America is as shadowy as her surroundings. Is she a reporter for an American magazine as she sometimes claims, or a contact person for Eyes of Peace? And who is the rough English businessman with whom she becomes involved? As the two foreigners become entangled in increasingly sinister plots, Denis Johnson masterfully dramatizes a powerful vision of spiritual bereavement and corruption.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The novel's narrator, a nameless young American woman living in Nicaragua, is said to be a journalist, though there is no evidence for that claim. She lives by her wits, a "little of this and a little of that," and is fully engaged in the trade of turning tricks in "room-by-the-hour joints," a career begun in college. Tormented by petty bureaucrats, she seeks desperately to flee the hated country with one of her customers, a murkily portrayed, nameless "Englishman" she has come to love; he, in turn, is hounded by a Costa Rican police agent. Their affair is as torpid as the tropical air, and their flight lacks tension and narrative power. At times the purpose here seems partisan and polemical: the country of the Sandinistas is presented from a tourist's view as corrupt and menacing, though the observing eye is that of the shrewd, foul-mouthed, hard-drinking whore. Short as it is, the book could be trimmed by half without loss of substance. Johnson's previous novelsAngels and Fiskadoro displayed an unmistakable gift. Unfortunately, this is inferior work by a manifestly superior writer.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A young American woman (unnamed) is working in Nicaragua, supposedly as a journalist but actually as a prostitute; her primary aim is to convert the staggering quantity of cordobas she has accumulated so that she can get out of Nicaragua and back to the the United States via Costa Rica. Inadvertently she takes up with a British petroleum corporation executive turned traitor and/or fugitivea liaison that is nearly her undoing, for she finds herself trapped not only in Nicaragua but in a desperate and futile love/hate tangle. The remarkably poetic and memorable picture of sizzling political unrest in Central America almost but not quite redeems this rather confused and not very interesting tale by the author of Angels ( LJ 8/83) and Fiskadoro ( LJ 5/15/85). Ronald L. Coombs, SUNY Downstate Medical Ctr. Lib., Brooklyn, N. Y.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 181 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (September 12, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394538404
• ISBN-13: 978-0394538402
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,400,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vastly underrated, April 9, 2004

By 

Henry Platte (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Stars at Noon (Paperback)

This is easily some of Johnson's best work. Granted, it's short, and there may not be enough space to develop such an ambitious story in such a setting, but I think he selects all the right details. One sentence is enough to bring some strange corner of a horrifyingly corrupt city into focus(...).

It's not up to the mythic level of Jesus' Son, true, but it's a different kind of book. It's less personal, and gives a better sense of society in general, a convincing world. I recommend it very highly.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A 20th Century Heart of Darkness, January 27, 2001

By 

Philip E. Hodgman (East Lansing, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stars at Noon (Paperback)

Stars at Noon presents the story of a female journalist caught in a murky labyrinth of a world in Nicaragua of the 1980's. She attempts to escape and in the process, becomes mixed up with "the Englishman" and other shadowy characters.

The mood is dark and the action somewhat confusing and hard to follow. The atmosphere is steamy and jungle-like, reminiscent of Conrad's classic story, "The Heart of Darkness."

Although there is no clear ending or moral to the book, I found the protagonist sympathetic and the language of the book poetic and evocative. The book, in spite of its murky and confusing qualities, was very entertaining and a good read.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, May 6, 2011

By 

Sherrie R. Miranda "Sherpeace" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Stars at Noon (Paperback)

This book moved quickly and was a good "setting" novel. In other words, it really
gave the reader a good sense of place, an unusual place at an unusual time. The
story line confused me a couple times but I enjoyed it anyway.