Denis Johnson 1949 – 2017
“All these weirdos, and me getting a little better every day right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us.”
Denis Johnson writes about lost souls, who have faint hopes of finding, if not God, at least some meaning in their lives. His themes and violent descriptions echo the works of Flannery O’Connor and Robert Stone, two of his major influences. Johnson portrays the marginal in American society: the addicts, alcoholics, homeless, beggars, and crooks, as well as those who simply cannot or will not adapt to mainstream culture, a culture that itself is crumbling and has helped create the characters it rejects. Johnson’s characters seem able to survive on hope and human resilience, no matter how outcast or alienated they may be. Ultimately, Johnson’s themes are metaphysical. The alienation of his characters implies a someone or a something from which to be alienated. -Literary Reference Center
Selected Works:
Novels
Angels
Fiskadoro
The Stars at Noon
Resuscitation of a Hanged Man
Already Dead: A California Gothic
The Name of the World
Tree of Smoke
Nobody Move
Train Dreams
The Laughing Monsters
Short story collections
Jesus’ Son
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
Poetry
The Man Among the Seals: Poems (Stone Wall Press, 1969)
Inner Weather (Graywolf Press, 1976)
The Incognito Lounge (Random House, 1982)
The Veil (Knopf, 1985)
The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly: Poems Collected and New
Plays
Hellhound on My Trail: A Drama in Three Parts (2000)
Shoppers: Two Plays (Harper, 2002) ISBN 9780060934408- includes Hellhound on My Trail
Soul of a Whore and Purvis: Two Plays in Verse (FSG, 2012) ISBN 9780374277963
Screenplays
The Prom (1990) (directed by Steven Shainberg)
Hit Me (1996)
Nonfiction
(contributor) One Man By Himself: Portraits of John Serl (Hard Press, 1995) ISBN 9789110224940
Seek: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond (Essays)