A Few Books Denis Johnson Wanted you to Read
It’s still strange to me that Denis Johnson is no longer around. His books were celebrated for their vivacity, for their celebration of wonder in the midst of squalor, for their ability to wring jubilance from suffering. It is a major loss to the world of letters, as the many many many many many many many many testaments to his influence make clear. He was also a pretty incredible guy in person, too — at least that was my impression in the limited interactions I had with him.
I attended a few readings — the first was at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff around 2001, where he was promoting the publication of The Name of the World and his collection of essays, Seek. A decade passed before I saw him read again, this time at Rutgers University in early April of 2012, where he read from his action noir Nobody Move, which he was lamenting had just been remaindered. Later that month he read from Train Dreams, then a contender for the Pulitzer Prize, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Between and because of these readings, I was also fortunate to spend a bit of downtime with the author. I ate breakfast with him in Portland when he was in town for a conference, because I happened to know a former student of his and he kindly invited me along. When I worked at Rain Taxi Review of Books, the magazine’s editor Eric Lorberer invited me to join them for lunch prior to the Minneapolis reading. The faculty at Rutgers took Mr. Johnson out to dinner, and because my sister, whom I was visiting, is on the faculty of a neighboring university and friendly with Rutgers’ English department, we were able to attend as well. I spent most of these interactions tongue tied, but I did listen to what he had to say. Over the course of these readings and other interactions, I compiled a list of the books he mentioned or recommended, and in memorium of the man’s outsized role in my life as a reader, I’m happy to share that list with you.
No surpise here. Any time anyone asked Denis Johnson which books he liked or recommended, this was the first one he mentioned. Check out the newest edition from NYRB, featuring an introduction by the man himself.
A Hall of Mirrors, Dog Soldiers, and A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
Johnson was frequntly cited in his adulation of Robert Stone. He mentioned these and the next on this list when I saw him read at Rutgers University in early April of 2012.
This book was mentioned as an example of a “little book,” which Mr. Johnson was particularly enjoying around the time I saw him read in Minneapolis in late April of 2012.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Another “little book” that clearly made an impression on Johnson, especially evident in Tree of Smoke, where the very Kurtz-like Colonel Sands occupies a central position in the shifting mysteries of the plot.
Johnson cited this as a model or inspiration for the peculiar narrative distance he employed in the stories in Jesus’ Son.
The Power and the Glory, The Comedians, The Heart of the Matter, and The Human Factor by Graham Greene
William Skip Sands in Tree of Smoke is a fan of Greene’s, and much of Johnson’s off-continent work seems to garner comparisons to the author. He took this comparison quite literally — in an interview with Yale Lit Mag, Johnson stated, “I told my editor Jonathan Galassi at FSG, ‘I’m not trying to be Graham Greene. I think I actually am Graham Greene.’”
Men in Miami Hotels by Charles Smith
Charles Smith studied poetry at the University of Iowa and then started writing novels, much like Mr. Johnson. Perhaps based on this similar career trajecotry, he recommended it over coffee after the reading in New Jersey. I have not yet read it and don’t know what he liked about it.
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
At lunch prior to the Minneapolis reading, Rain Taxi editor Eric Lorberer, Mr. Johnson and I were discussing the recent and, to us, annoying trend in literature that employs multiple points of view and non-linear narratives. In Already Dead, Johnson experiments with POV a bit, using a device that allows him both a first and a third person in alternating sections. But for the most part, he sticks to his POV guns for the duration of his novels. The Name of the World, he made sure to point out, didn’t even have chapters. It’s a single narrative section. (Tantalizing factoid: The Name of the World and Train Dreams are two of three novellas Johnson wrote about a man coping with the loss of his partner and family. The third was either never at a point where he felt comfortable publishing it or else it will certainly be unearthed and published posthumously by his estate). “I just read a novel that had a great linear narrative. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt,” he said, and then I went out and read it and loved it, though it has very little in common with Johnson’s style or his usual subject matter.
Please support your community and a diverse economy by purchasing these books at your local independent bookseller. When you’re there, also consider buying every Denis Johnson book you haven’t read.
