My junkie aunt said this book's style was what her brain was like for her drug decade. She was always trying to piece together disjointed memories into a sensible picture.
I love Denis Johnson’s work so much, from Train Dreams to Jesus’s Son and feel a strong affinity with anyone who reads and likes his work. Reading Jesus’s Son was like walking through a fog where things seem so real but disappear as soon as you try to reach out for them.
Holy, Holy, Holy!!! Writing up a proposal/bid for a roof job and Cliff's review popped up. Immediately put the bid off to watch the review, "Jesus' Son" is the one book I always carry with me, tucked in my backpack. Bought this masterpiece after a review in Esquire magazine and was gobsmacked reading it, a prose masterwork on the same level as "By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept" by Elizabeth Smart. Humor, tragedy, hallucinatory imagery, "Jesus' Son" is the book that I read at the perfect age and it became embedded in my psyche and has remained ever since. I never tire of reading it and recommend it to only readers that I think will be as impressed with it as I am. Thanks Cliff for the review, brilliant as always.
Your channel is incredible. I’ve been desperately mining RUclips for REAL book channels and, after years of YA “booktubers,” I’ve found yours and 1 other adult, serious literary channels. Thanks.
I met Denis a few times at AZ State University and he was very cool; indeed, a great GREAT writer. I really like his poetry, too. His "Incognito Lounge" was written in the bar on Thomas Road, Phoenix, AZ. The bar that has no windows ... ♠️🤠♦️
I wonder if Denis Johnson was extremely cautious in the tales he wrote? Having descended beyond rock bottom and surfaced again, he may have been hesitant to present his lessons too directly. I could see that caution stemming from a protective ethic to not communicate lessons only those who have been where he has need to learn or from a sense of responsibility towards seekers who have their own paths to travel. There are many paths to journey on and guiding someone down a narrow but dangerous road they were not meant to travel could have been too much peril for him to speak more coherently to his audience. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about communicating a theory via literature. I may have done that as a matter of course at one point in my life, but I had definitely forgotten about it.
I highly reccomend the movie. It is probably my favorite movie ever. They takes good quotes and combine the stories in a nice flow for a story told by an addict that may hae not been remembering his own stories correctly.
I read this book in college for a class on literature-to-film adaptations, and I was surprised to find both the book and film pretty close in quality. It's funny 'cause it's such a confusing book and yet all the sequences of events and dialogue and narration are pretty much just transferred straight to the screenplay and it carries with it the weirdness without making the movie completely inaccessible.
@@AngryNegativeHistoryProject I guess I thought fiction could only be the certain things that I had read up to that point. This book didn’t fit into that mold and made me obsessively curious about what else I’d been missing out on.
Just finished the last book in James Ellroy’s LA Quartet, White Jazz. Highly, highly recommended, the whole series. Seems stylistically similar to Dennis Johnson’s books to me. More staccato. Maybe. Hope ya’ll are having a good day.
Jesus's Son has million scenes burned in my brain, including the protagonist seeing the naked woman hand gliding as he removes copper wiring from an abandoned house. I think his fiction works better at short length, including novels like Angels, The Stars at Noon, and Fiskadoro. Long live Denis Johnson!
Fiskadoro is so underrated. It's a very well constructed story that I think gets overlooked when talking about great post apocalypse. One of my favorite protagonists ever
I was visiting my cousin. My uncle woke us up to take the dog to the vet. She was in labor. We sat and watched as my uncle named each one after books in the Bible. In sequence. At 1 a.m. there was a quiz
Cliff, after watching you for years I was wondering and maybe this doesn't add anything to the video and is totally random, but do you like Irvine Welsh as a writer? It was a question I wanted to ask for so long, because you also dig Easton Ellis and I haven't seen a review of that writer yet. I know Easton Ellis and Welsh are friends and like each others work very much. I am curious.
In Car Crash, he's not injecting banal humor into a dark scene. He describes feeling intense emotion from watching the widower and heavily implies the experience was thrilling.
I wonder if his indecision throughout life had anything to do with his drug use. Even if he was indecisive before doing drugs, the substance abuse wouldn’t have made him think any clearer.
My junkie aunt said this book's style was what her brain was like for her drug decade. She was always trying to piece together disjointed memories into a sensible picture.
Mark Lanegan wrote a autobiography of his drug/music years, but it was a true story. Is this book of this video based off true stories?
Please don’t refer to her as your junkie aunt. Unless you think she wouldn’t mind. But I think it’s not kind.
@@zabe428 she calls herself my junkie aunt. She's very open about her drug years. Her stories about hunting pills around Las Vegas are hilarious.
I love Denis Johnson’s work so much, from Train Dreams to Jesus’s Son and feel a strong affinity with anyone who reads and likes his work. Reading Jesus’s Son was like walking through a fog where things seem so real but disappear as soon as you try to reach out for them.
Holy, Holy, Holy!!! Writing up a proposal/bid for a roof job and Cliff's review popped up. Immediately put the bid off to watch the review, "Jesus' Son" is the one book I always carry with me, tucked in my backpack. Bought this masterpiece after a review in Esquire magazine and was gobsmacked reading it, a prose masterwork on the same level as "By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept" by Elizabeth Smart. Humor, tragedy, hallucinatory imagery, "Jesus' Son" is the book that I read at the perfect age and it became embedded in my psyche and has remained ever since. I never tire of reading it and recommend it to only readers that I think will be as impressed with it as I am. Thanks Cliff for the review, brilliant as always.
ChatGPT much?
Hell yes! Glad you made a review about this collection. This notification made my day
Your review of Jesus’Son and Tree of Smoke made me snag both for myself. I really love your channel❤.
@@nikkivenable73 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Cliff the last three books you've reviewed are books I've just finished. You're either a mind reader or I'm on the right track lol
Your channel is incredible. I’ve been desperately mining RUclips for REAL book channels and, after years of YA “booktubers,” I’ve found yours and 1 other adult, serious literary channels. Thanks.
I met Denis a few times at AZ State University and he was very cool; indeed, a great GREAT writer. I really like his poetry, too. His "Incognito Lounge" was written in the bar on Thomas Road, Phoenix, AZ. The bar that has no windows ... ♠️🤠♦️
So this is a fiction book he's talking about?
@@AngryNegativeHistoryProject Clifford's referring to a collection of short stories
Nice shirt, Cliff. Always happy to see more Denis Johnson :)
So glad you finally read/reviewed this
I'm 4 min in and you've already got me convinced to read it. Thank you, sir.
Nice evening (my time) to listen to your review! Thanks for uploading! ❤
4:20 this is one of my absolute favorite passages from any book, ever!
New subscriber here. Just read Train Dreams and have this one on my list to get to next. Looking forward to it. Great video!
I wonder if Denis Johnson was extremely cautious in the tales he wrote? Having descended beyond rock bottom and surfaced again, he may have been hesitant to present his lessons too directly. I could see that caution stemming from a protective ethic to not communicate lessons only those who have been where he has need to learn or from a sense of responsibility towards seekers who have their own paths to travel. There are many paths to journey on and guiding someone down a narrow but dangerous road they were not meant to travel could have been too much peril for him to speak more coherently to his audience. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about communicating a theory via literature. I may have done that as a matter of course at one point in my life, but I had definitely forgotten about it.
awesome collection of short stories
In past videos I’ve seen a Jim Jarmusch book on your shelves. Just wondering what book is it that you have about him?
I highly reccomend the movie. It is probably my favorite movie ever. They takes good quotes and combine the stories in a nice flow for a story told by an addict that may hae not been remembering his own stories correctly.
I can't remember the last review where Cliff didn't mention being on your death bed lmao
I read this book in college for a class on literature-to-film adaptations, and I was surprised to find both the book and film pretty close in quality. It's funny 'cause it's such a confusing book and yet all the sequences of events and dialogue and narration are pretty much just transferred straight to the screenplay and it carries with it the weirdness without making the movie completely inaccessible.
Any chance you gonna be reviewing Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried?
This is the book that made me switch from almost exclusively non fiction to mostly fiction
Why is that? I read only nonfiction
@@AngryNegativeHistoryProject I guess I thought fiction could only be the certain things that I had read up to that point. This book didn’t fit into that mold and made me obsessively curious about what else I’d been missing out on.
Thank you. Loved this book.
For the love of God please continue making videos..
Just finished the last book in James Ellroy’s LA Quartet, White Jazz. Highly, highly recommended, the whole series. Seems stylistically similar to Dennis Johnson’s books to me. More staccato. Maybe.
Hope ya’ll are having a good day.
LA Quartet is so so good
Mr. Food, have you read Steppenwolf? Please do
Being so embarrassed that you loop into action mode is pretty much my regular state of being.
Love this writer. Angels and Nobody Move are great as well. Did not manage to finish Tree of Smoke though.
It’s a beautifully written book. Train Dreams was great too. Gotta read his other stuff like Tree of Smoke.
A thumbnail for the ages.
Cliff’s collared t-shirts always look like they were hand picked from a surfer who happens to be a blacksmith’s closet.
Jesus's Son has million scenes burned in my brain, including the protagonist seeing the naked woman hand gliding as he removes copper wiring from an abandoned house.
I think his fiction works better at short length, including novels like Angels, The Stars at Noon, and Fiskadoro.
Long live Denis Johnson!
Fiskadoro is so underrated. It's a very well constructed story that I think gets overlooked when talking about great post apocalypse. One of my favorite protagonists ever
Yes, I love this book!
one of my favorite books
I was visiting my cousin. My uncle woke us up to take the dog to the vet. She was in labor. We sat and watched as my uncle named each one after books in the Bible. In sequence. At 1 a.m. there was a quiz
Cliff, after watching you for years I was wondering and maybe this doesn't add anything to the video and is totally random, but do you like Irvine Welsh as a writer? It was a question I wanted to ask for so long, because you also dig Easton Ellis and I haven't seen a review of that writer yet. I know Easton Ellis and Welsh are friends and like each others work very much. I am curious.
In Car Crash, he's not injecting banal humor into a dark scene. He describes feeling intense emotion from watching the widower and heavily implies the experience was thrilling.
GTASA Chinatown Triads: "F***head"
Watch the film adaptation. I'm curious to know how well you think Billy Crudup portrayed the protagonist.
In the movie? The guy with the knife in his eye is a cameo by the author Denis Johnson.
I wonder if his indecision throughout life had anything to do with his drug use. Even if he was indecisive before doing drugs, the substance abuse wouldn’t have made him think any clearer.
He's not my favorite writer but I think him and Ellison are the writers whose styles have most influenced me.
Thank you.
Please do a review of Cain's Jawbone
i didnt know! and i should, i know...
Also a dynamite lou reed song
You should read the Satanic Verses... if you like more difficult stuff
"Sexual Personae" has disappeared from that pile over your left shoulder... What can this mean?
It means I’m reading it.
It’s phenomenal so far.
@@BetterThanFoodBookReviews Aha! Excellent
Preferred Train Dreams.
Good voice, man. You can sing!
Amazing book. This sort of writing makes total sense to me. I am curious. Do you know about B Traven? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_of_B._Traven