Jesus' Son
Denis Johnson · 1992
The most influential American story collection of the last 30 years. Johnson's druggy, visionary voice (part Carver, part Rimbaud) created a new register for American fiction. Every MFA student reads this and either despairs or gets inspired.
The case against
Slim enough to finish in an afternoon, and some of it reads like luck: Johnson's epiphanies arrive on schedule, one radiant image per story, whether or not the story earned it. Fuckhead drifts; nothing accrues. And the book's influence is its own indictment, three decades of MFA addiction stories chasing this voice. The original glows; it also flatters the wreckage.
Short Stories · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
