Described by an anonymous reviewer for Esquire (December 1985) as "a writer who slips smoothly from poetry to the novel and back again," Denis Johnson has produced a significant body of work since he ...
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In the following positive review, Eder praises Fiskadoro, calling the work “a leap of imagination, with no loss of precision and perceptiveness.”
Science fiction at its best can do, in r...
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In the following review, McGuiness offers a positive assessment of The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly.
The Man among the Seals and Inner Weather are so rare, you...
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In the following excerpt, Martelle evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Already Dead.
We are, often without our awareness, creatures of the land we inhabit, defined by the terrain on which we liv...
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In the following review, Malin praises Already Dead, complimenting Johnson's vision of California culture.
Although Johnson is drawn to sinners, deviants, and criminals, he does not glorify the...
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In the following review of Already Dead, Hitchings commends Johnson's prose style, but finds shortcomings in the novel's philosophizing and unsympathetic characters.
Denis Johnson'...
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In the following review, Malin offers a positive assessment of The Name of the World.
Denis Johnson is haunted by the ghostly remains of the Catholicism he once accepted. He writes about lost souls wh...
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In the following review, Ulin examines the essays in Seek, praising the “rawness” of Johnson's prose style.
Let's begin with a Denis Johnson moment. One Saturday, in Los An...
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In the following excerpt, Jenkins comments on the ubiquitous references to angels in recent American poetry and offers a generally positive review of The Veil.
Confronted with 130-odd new books of poe...
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In the following positive review, Eder evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Resuscitation of a Hanged Man, commenting that Johnson has a “dramatist's gift for dialogue.”
Lenn...
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In the following review, Krist offers a generally positive assessment of Resuscitation of a Hanged Man.
“Hell,” my Lutheran pastor used to teach in confirmation class, “might be s...
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In the following negative review of Resuscitation of a Hanged Man, Kaveney finds shortcomings in what he perceives as the novel's jaded perspective and hopelessness.
Denis Johnson writes about ...
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In the following positive review, Elie praises Resuscitation of a Hanged Man, noting that “few novels have rendered so well the zany nobility of life on the edge.”
“There's...
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In the following essay, Johnson reflects on the role of observing and reporting in his life.
I'm remembering a time in Chicago. Down around Jefferson Street, some ways below the Loop. I couldn&...
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In the following review, the anonymous critic offers a favorable assessment of The Name of the World.
A traumatized widower is painfully and gradually recalled to life in this deceptively simpleȁ...
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In the following positive review of The Name of the World, the anonymous commentator contends that “Johnson's eloquent examination of one man's persistent inability to extricate h...
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In the following review, Reynolds differentiates The Name of the World from the rest of Johnson's oeuvre.
Maybe you're already a member of the cult of Denis Johnson, joined when you firs...
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In the following positive assessment, Stone explores the narrative line of The Name of the World.
The jacket of Denis Johnson's new novel displays what might be a road or a set of railroad trac...
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In the following mixed review, Eder discusses the fragmentary nature of The Name of the World and questions the role of deliverance in the novel.
There are a yellowed globe and an antique telescope in...
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In the following review, the anonymous critic lauds the tone and pace of The Name of the World.
It isn't easy to recommend spending ＄23 on 120 widely spaced pages, but there's a r...
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In the following review, Gates offers a favorable assessment of The Name of the World.
Near the end of Denis Johnson's haunting novella, The Name of the World, the narrator says an odd thing. O...
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In the following review, Malin discusses the role of spirituality in The Name of the World.
Denis Johnson is haunted by the ghostly remains of the Catholicism he once accepted. He writes about lost so...
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Denis Johnson
