Synopses & Reviews
"Denis Johnson is an artist. He writes with a natural authority, and there is real music in his prose."—Mona Simpson,
The New York Times Book ReviewIn the bleak of November, Lenny English drifts into the Cape Cod resort of Provincetown. Recovering from a recent suicide attempt, his soul suspended in its own off-season, he takes a job as a third-shift disk jockey, with a little private detective work on the side for his boss. As Lenny falls in love with a beautiful young local, a woman whose sexual orientation should preclude the affair, he soon begins his first assignment, a search for a missing painter whose personal history seems to mirror his own. In pursuit of the artist—and love, and redemption—Lenny will resort to great and desperate measures to revive himself, and his faith in the world.
Review
"Denis Johnson is an artist. He writes with a natural authority, and there is real music in his prose." Mona Simpson, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"The God I want to believe in has a voice and a sense of humor like Denis Johnson's." Jonathan Franzen
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"One of the best and most compelling novelists in the nation." Elle
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"Johnson is an author who has captured the zeitgeist of American experience as surely as Twain, Hemingway or Ellison." Andrew Hubner, New York Post
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"An utterly brilliant and original talent, a novelist who reminds us just how wonderful fiction can be." The Philadelphia Inquirer
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"A classic...the touch of one of the finest novelists living today." Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Synopsis
Leonard English, a sad and intense young man recovering from a suicide attempt, moves to the Cape Cod resort of Provincetown to work as a disk jockey cum private detective. On his first day there, he encounters a beautiful young woman and falls desperately in love with her — only to find out she prefers those of her own sex to men. English's first assignment, a search for an elusive artist, proves equally frustrating. As winter lengthens and Leonard's anguish mounts, his desperate quests — for the artist, for love, for redemption — take on an increasingly apocalyptic coloring.
Synopsis
In the bleak of November, Lenny English drifts into the Cape Cod resort of Provincetown. Recovering from a recent suicide attempt, his soul suspended in its own off-season, he takes a job as a third-shift disk jockey, with a little private detective work on the side for his boss. As Lenny falls in love with a beautiful young local, a woman whose sexual orientation should preclude the affair, he soon begins his first assignment, a search for a missing painter whose personal history seems to mirror his own. In pursuit of the artist — and love, and redemption — Lenny will resort to great and desperate measures to revive himself, and his faith in the world.
About the Author
Denis Johnson is the author of six novels, three collections of poetry, and one book of reportage. His novel Tree of Smoke was the 2007 winner of the National Book Award.