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Title: Don't Believe the Hype
Review: It seems to me that the more ugly, grotesque, and hopeless your work is, the more people will praise you, call you a genius, and hand over their money to you. Denis Johnson is no exception here. Even though he can put a good line together once in a while, the praise surrounding his work is a lot of overblown hype and his stories lack any depth. I was attracted to this book because I'd read that Johnson was similiar to Thom Jones but is nowhere close to Jones's work. The "dark side" of life is only interesting for so long, and only if there's some meaning behind it, even though the privleged middle class seems to be obsessed with probing the depths of this from their secure suburban lifestyles. Isn't there enough disposable literature out there today?
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