Already Dead : A California Gothic

Rating:
Summary: I wanted to love it
Review: That's maybe the hardest thing to chew on. I really wanted to love this book, but by page 304 (where I sit), despite the endless radiating beauty of the language, I succumb to my need for something to grasp on to. Plot is not the most important thing a novel needs, in my opinion, but the structure here seems, at times, confusing for confusings' sake. If you like Johnson, even just a little bit, try this on for size. You may love it, you may not. I appreciate this book, and much of the writing is downright quotable, but the Johnson of Stars At Noon and Angels (and the hopefully not-too-much-longer delayed Tree of Smoke; heard him read from this; nnnnnnice) is the best.

Rating:
Summary: YAWN!
Review: The positive reviews of this title have spurred me to finish the thing but overall I agree with the negative reviews. Definitely not one of the best books I've read this year.

Rating:
Summary: reports of death greatly exaggerated
Review: There's a Manson-y feel to this book, with its blend of paranoid machismo and New Age spiritualism. They mix counterintuitively but quite naturally, as it turns out. Johnson is a fine poet of the apocalyptic variety, and he seems confident enough with the novel format to be getting out of it whatever it was he wanted. I'm not sure I know what that was, only that it's marked by a self-consciously misaligned timeline and long indulgent excerpts of prose-poetry "letters" written by one of the characters. It strikes me mostly as a modern Revelation, adapted of course to a personal level and set in that most visionary of domains--Northern California. Quasi-allegorical characters populate this landscape, each representing some cracked form of philosophy--Nietzcheism, spiritualism, nihilism--all intertwining and intersecting in a manner apparently intended as a confirmation of Fate. The investigator and diviner of all this is, ironically yet appropriately for this hard-boiled world, a cop. Everything about this book is appropriate, really, in a surprising way--I like how it logically linked tough-guy-ness, satire and pagan religiosity in a way I wouldn't have expected. Johnson's world is one that's violent, fearful and tenuous, and so naturally are the philosphies he seizes upon to ameliorate those worries. Ultimately, I grew a little tired of the book, and its non-linear (a denial of regular cause-and-effect, perhaps to emphasize Fate), somewhat unsatisfying dramatic structure. Its characters are vivid but fleeting, like temporarily conjured demons, but the overall substance and momentum are too borderline crazy to really seize on or get into. It's like a big bullet glancing off the shell of one man's very individualized, internal-logic view of things. Thus, perhaps the Blake comparison on the jacket is the most apt.--J.Ruch

Rating:
Summary: a work of art
Review: this book has absolutley blown me away!...the masterful writing and prose are incredible...this author truely knows how to write a compelling story that exhibits all of the positive elements of "literature"...undoubtably the best novel i have read in ages...a must read...

Rating:
Summary: if it's too long, you're too lazy!
Review: This book has beautiful language all throughout...I was dragged kicking and screaming (albeit willingly) from the first page to the last. This is probably my favorite Johnson novel (my favorite book is the short story collection "Jesus' Son"). If you're a fan of Pynchon (although Johnson's novels aren't so "long" and nowhere near so obscure) or Delillo, this here's your man! Also, try reading some Harry Crews. He's good too.

Rating:
Summary: Too much tripping
Review: This is NOT brain candy material. Johnson's synapses must look like the LA Freeway on a bad day. The book is sprawling in a bad way. This is one book to skip unless you have nothing but time on your hands.

Rating:
Summary: Ok...
Review: This is the first review I've written, but I felt I had to throw my two cents in about this book. This book moves REALLY slowly, if your someone who likes a plot to capture you from the first couple pages (even chapters) this isnt it. I agree with all the reviews on one point, his prose is excellent. Very poetic, but this book was tough to get through. I normally rifle through books fairly quickly because they caputer me and keep me wanting more. With Already Dead I felt I had to force myself to keep going, hoping it would get better. The book is good, but its just too slow for me. I did make it to the end and am happy to have it on my bookshelf. Thats pretty much all I have to say. Its not a bad book in the least, but not my cup of tea.

Rating:
Summary: This Might be the Worse Book I've Ever Read
Review: Whatever you do, do not attempt to read this book. It's terrible. It's a chore just to try to follow along. I think he's trying to be ultra-smart with his writing style, but it just comes across as impossible to read. For your own safety, stay away.

Rating:
Summary: hellhound on my trail
Review: When I read this book I found myself desperately feeling like my life resembled it far far more closely than I would have liked. Already Dead is a haunting and horrible journey where the sickening downward spiral of Nelson Fairchild's inner life is mirrored in his northern California community. Maybe it's more than that, maybe it's even that somehow Fairchild, through his possibly demonic counterpart Carl Van Ness, is at the center of this spiritual gyre that engulfs the whole coast. I don't think it's a coincidence that Van Ness's attempted suicide, which acts as a catalyst for all the later action in the book, is a drowning. The whole thing is like being pulled slowly but steadliy from beneath in a deep pool of your own cerebral juices; you can feel yourself pulling more and more of that sour liquid into your lungs as you read. So, while that might not sound like much of a reccommendation, I think any book that can make you feel that way, must be a great book. The aforementioned experience while not necessarily plesant, is not bereft of a certain ammount of humor or bemeusment as might be expected with your life flashing before your eyes; life is, after all, funny stuff. There's no denying that Already Dead is dark, that it's hard, that it does make you feel sort of dead, but it also sharpens the senses and gives a thread of clarity about what is eternal and vital; it helps you see what makes life worth the living. It does that in a very twisted way of course, but really, this is Denis Johnson, what else did we expect.

Rating:
Summary: one powerfully incredible novel!
Review: while i am only about 200 pages into _already dead_, i am overcome with the beauty of this novel....the writing is incredible, and johnson's keen sense of character is simply amazing!...this is without a doubt the best book i have come across in ages and ages...run don't walk to your nearest book dealer and see for yourself....