Books by Denis Johnson and Complete Book Reviews

Denis Johnson, Author . Farrar, Straus & Giroux $27 (614p) ISBN 978-0-374-27912-7
Signature Reviewed by Michael Coffey If this novel, Johnson's first in nearly a decade, is—as the promo copy says—about Skip Sands, it's also about his uncle, a legendary CIA operative; Kathy Jones, a widowed, saintly...
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Denis Johnson. Random House, $27 (224p) ISBN 978-0-8129-8863-5
The second story collection from the late Johnson (Jesus' Son) is a masterpiece of deep humanity and astonishing prose. The title story chronicles a lifetime of moments, from the small to the ecstatic, of ad agent Bill Whitman, including a chance...
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Denis Johnson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25 (240p) ISBN 978-0-374-28059-8
Best known for writing about Vietnam (Tree of Smoke won the National Book Award) and America’s dispossessed (Jesus’ Son; Angels), Johnson sets his new literary spy thriller in Africa. Roland Nair, a Scandinavian with a U.S. passport, returns to the...
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Denis Johnson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $18 (128p) ISBN 978-0-374-28114-4
Readers eager for a fat follow-up to Tree of Smoke could be forgiven a modicum of skepticism at this tidy volume—a reissue of a 2003 O. Henry Prize–winning novella that originally appeared in the Paris Review—but it would be a shame to pass up a...
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Denis Johnson, Author HarperCollins Publishers $25 (448p) ISBN 978-0-06-018737-8
Pop-mystical mumbo-jumbo freely and funnily coexists with the classics of Western philosophy in this ruminative, atmospheric tale of severed connections, lost souls, witches, demons, drugs and murder in Mendocino County, Calif. Nelson Fairchild Jr.,
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Denis Johnson, Author Farrar Straus Giroux $19 (160p) ISBN 978-0-374-17892-5
Taking its title from a line in Lou Reed's notorious song ``Heroin,'' this story collection by with-it novelist Johnson focuses on the familiar themes of addiction and recovery. In his novels ( Angels ; Resuscitation of a Hanged Man ) Johnson has...
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Denis Johnson, Author Vintage Books USA $5.95 (181p) ISBN 978-0-394-75427-7
In this novel set in Nicaragua, a nameless young American woman supports herself by whoring and seeks to flee the country she hates with one of her customers. PW was disappointed in this ""inferior work'' by the author of the well-received novels...
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Denis Johnson, Author Alfred A. Knopf $15.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-394-53840-2
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
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Denis Johnson, Author HarperCollins $22 (144p) ISBN 978-0-06-019248-8
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,...
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Denis Johnson, Author Farrar Straus Giroux $19.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-374-24949-6
Johnson ( Angels ; Fiskadoro ) is a writer whose grace and style are frequently highlighted by the incongruity of his plot twists and character development. The hero of this novel, Leonard English, has come to Provincetown after an unsuccessful...
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Denis Johnson, Author . Farrar, Straus & Giroux $22 (196p) ISBN 978-0-374-22290-1
National Book Award–winner Johnson (Tree of Smoke ) goes lean and mean in this slick noir, originally serialized in Playboy last summer. Jimmy Luntz, a chain-smoking, fast-talking addictive gambler, is in the hole several grand to underworld...
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Denis Johnson, Author , read by Will Patton. Macmillan Audio $59.95 (
, unabridged, 18 CDs, 23 hrs., $59.95 ISBN ) ISBN 978-1-4272-0214-7
Patton is a fine character actor. His performances in A Mighty Heart and Inventing the Abbotts made a notable presence in otherwise unremarkable roles. His reading of Johnson’s baroque Vietnam novel, though, will probably not feature highly...
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Denis Johnson, Author . HarperCollins $23 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-093047-9
As a fiction writer and poet, Johnson is known for his surreal portraits of the dispossessed lurking at the fringes of American life: the drifters, the jobless, the junkies and midnight DJ's. In this collection of 11 essays, which brings...
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Denis Johnson, read by multiple narrators. Random House Audio, , unabridged, digital download, 5.5 hrs., $15 ISBN 978-0-525-49547-5
An outstanding assemblage of actors narrates this powerful collection of five short stories from the late Johnson, who died in 2017. Film actor Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, Nocturnal Animals) soulfully relays “The Starlight on Idaho,” which...
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Denis Johnson, Author, Will Patton, Read by , read by Will Patton. Macmillan Audio $19.99 (96p) ISBN 978-1-4272-0571-1
Will Patton, award-winning reader of Johnson’s oeuvre, brings to life his dark, drug-addled, tragicomic world. Each short story offers another vista on a lost, sorrowful American underworld where recurring characters stumble through dive bars,
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Denis Johnson, Author, Will Patton, Read by , read by Will Patton. Macmillan $24.95 (0p) ISBN 978-1-4272-0689-3
Lowlifes have never had it this good. Will Patton delivers a flawless reading of Johnson's novel of life on the lam. Patton, whose narration of Johnson's Book of Smoke was honored with an Audie Award, lowers his voice to a purring world-we
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Denis Johnson, read by Will Patton. Macmillan Audio, unabridged, two CDs, 2.5 hrs., $17.99 ISBN 978-1-4272-1377-8
Will Patton—who narrated Johnson’s Tree of Smoke—helms this audio version of the author’s far more compact novella about the life of day laborer Robert Granier, who—having lost his family—works his way across the country laying rail lines that will...
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