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Product Description
Product Description
The most critically acclaimed, and first, of Denis Johnson's novels, Angels puts Jamie Mays -- a runaway wife toting along two kids -- and Bill Houston -- ex-Navy man, ex-husband, ex-con -- on a Greyhound Bus for a dark, wild ride cross country. Driven by restless souls, bad booze, and desperate needs, Jamie and Bill bounce from bus stations to cheap hotels as they ply the strange, fascinating, and dangerous fringe of American life. Their tickets may say Phoenix, but their inescapable destination is a last stop marked by stunning violence and mind-shattering surprise.
Denis Johnson, known for his portraits of America's dispossessed, sets off literary pyrotechnics on this highway odyssey, lighting the trek with wit and a personal metaphysics that defiantly takes on the world.
From the Back Cover
-- The New York Times Book Review
This novel, which suggests a brilliant mixture of William Blake and James M. Cain, established Denis Johnson as a major talent in American fiction, a promise confirmed in his later books Fiskadoro and The Stars at Noon. Jamie Mays and Bill Houston meet on a Greyhound bus. She is fleeing an unfaithful husband and lugging two travel-stained children. He is on the rebound from stints in jail and the navy and looking for "high old times." Together, they make an aimless tour of bus stations and cheap hotels from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, their momentum fueled by booze, rage, and corrosive need, their journey a trajectory that leads inexorably to a moment of shattering violence.
"A small masterpiece... prose of amazing power and stylishness."
-- Philip Roth
"A debut to be celebrated."
-- Washington Post Book World --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
In the Oakland Greyhound all the people were dwarfs, and they pushed and shoved to get on the bus, even cutting in ahead of the two nuns, who were there first. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Johnson,
By
This review is from: Angels: A Novel (Paperback)
Bleak and beautiful written, Angels is a fantastic novel. The plot is sort of meh, but the characters and style more than make up for it. Johnson is an unbelievable writer, and though I've yet to read all of Jesus' Son, it seems he's even better there.
A very good book. The only problem is that it seemed sort of hollow. At the end he riffs a number of philosophical issues (won't go into detail due to spoilers), but it just seemed forced.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Flannery O'Connor was reincarnated as this man,
By Henry Platte (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Angels: A Novel (Paperback)
Johnson is one of our greatest and most underappreciated living authors (yes, underappreciated, even though he has been lavishly praised by critics). He isn't just capable of writing a good book or two, he's a classic talent, and it's obvious from his very first novel. Angels reads like an epic poem - every sentence is carefully weighed and effective, and a sense of character emerges even out of shattered impressions. The flawed characters are still somehow endearing, and the sense of dark and cryptic religion, from occultism to by-the-book Christianity, underpinned by Bob Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone,' is powerful. This book should be read and enjoyed; eventually, also, reprinted and remembered.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fine writing, sometimes confusing story.,
By
This review is from: Angels: A Novel (Paperback)
This is the first Denis johnson book I have read and probably will not be the last. The man can paint pictures with words, phrases and sentences. We experience the torrid nights in Arizona, the lonely bus rides across the country and feel the evil of men having they way with cast-away women. The sadness is most vividly revealed through the few children that dot the story.I enjoy stories of people on the edge, desperate and without a clue of how to act beyond the first reaction and simplest action. I did find parts of the story confusing as characters seemed to come and go without notice or explanation. The ending is an excellent polemic on the death penalty.
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