RSS Feed
Level 0: Undefined
Posts: 925207Timestamp: Wed Dec 03, 08 10:37 AM
|
| Post URL: Book Review: Resuscitation of a Hanged Man
|   |
|
Book Review: Resuscitation of a Hanged Man
Name: Resuscitation of a Hanged Man
Author: Denis Johnson
From: Amazon
Quick plot summary: Story o
amazingampersand
Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:33:42 +0000
Name: Resuscitation of a Hanged Man
Author: Denis Johnson
From: Amazon
Quick plot summary: Story of a man running from a failed (obviously) suicide attempt, and the people he meets in the small town he finally finds himself in.
What you need to know: Denis Johnson has my life. The life I would be living if only I'd dedicated myself to being a writer. While I hugely admire, say, Salman Rushdie, I never wanted to write stories like him. While Chuck Palahniuk will always make me want to read his new stuff (however disappointed I may end up feeling), I don't want to be a Chuck Palahniuk clone. But when I read Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, I knew that this, this attitude, this incisive, minimalist style, was the path I wanted to follow. Johnson doesn't write about conventional heroes, or heroes at all; all his characters are flawed, all their emotions confused and contradictory. They don't know what they're doing, or why; they don't know why life hurts, but it does. There's a bleak edge to Johnson's fiction, and no guarantee of a happy ending. Resuscitation certainly demonstrates all of these characteristics. But, as with all of his writing, here Johnson has a humour, too - and most importantly, he has a humanity in his writing that makes you care. Johnson's characters are real people - and whether I like them or not, whether I can relate to them or not, I always want to follow them on their journeys.
Resuscitation is not Johnson's best book. The nothing-much-happening that happens between its covers kept me interested less than the nothing-much-happening in previous books have. But it's still a book I'd recommend, as an average Denis Johnson novel offers more than most other writers firing on all cylinders. If the story of Leonard English and his attempts to put his life back together, through love, detective work, and finding God, doesn't work for you, then try Jesus' Son. It's the best novel (or book of short stories with common characters) I've ever read. And this isn't as good as that...but to paraphrase Joseph Heller, What is?
A good book, if not a great one. But one I'm pleased I've read.
Why didn't you finish it? I did. Obviously.
Where is it now? Ready to add to the clear-out pile. You can't take it with you, you know.
What's next? Stephen Fry's autobiography. And the book of his series about the USA. A kind of literary stalking, I think.
books « WordPress.com Tag Feed
Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "books" |
|
More Topics
• 
