Nobody Move
This was a damn good read. It combines the cheap thrills and casual violence of a typical noir with the perfectly crafted sentences and deft-characterization found in a literary novel. The book is brief, maybe too brief(my ARC copy was 195 pages set in giant type with massive swathes of blank bordering) but maybe thats a good thing after Johnsons most recent door stop of a novel `Tree of Smoke, a massive, tedious lunge at the great American Novel, that to me, failed miserably. `Nobody Moves is
Two word review: Very meh. Unexpected side effect during or after reading: Urge to read a better crime novel. New thing I learned from reading this book: Singers in barber shop quartets may not be as wholesome as they seem.General observations: The jacket notes on this book gave me heartburn right off the bat:"Touched by echoes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, Nobody Move is at once an homage to and a variation on literary form. It salutes one of our most enduring and popular genresthe
Original review: If I was grading this on the scale that I apply to a lot of books, I might give it something closer to a three. But the thing is, I don't think there's an easy way to have a scale that applies to all books. I'm sure some people do. They have their criteria and they work from that, and maybe for all intents and purposes, that suits them just fine. For me, I'll admit, there's plenty that goes into that star rating up there, even if it seems that all I ever do is rate books a four
Of Johnson's work, Jesus' Son is my favorite and Nobody Move is my most recent. I'll have to read a second time to confirm my suspicion that Johnson's humor is bone-deep as is his love for loser protagonists. They come out equal parts do-gooder and total fuck-up.This book comes off as a quick and dirty assignment, something to play at, after years of toil on Tree of Smoke. And I'm still trying to figure its introductory remarks on war.Anyway, there are plenty of lines to love in Nobody Move.
Here's the thing about Denis Johnson:I don't love any single book he's written but I really love him as a writer. He's super versatile and does all kinds of styles and genres, but none of his attempts--that I've read yet--has been the kind of book that I can't imagine living without. Of course, I'd also recommend every single book I've read by him, and this is no exception.It's hilarious, it's violent, it's complex, it's seductive, it's mysterious, and it's just fun. Johnson's take on noir is
Denis Johnson
Hardcover | Pages: 196 pages Rating: 3.26 | 5267 Users | 620 Reviews
Details Based On Books Nobody Move
Title | : | Nobody Move |
Author | : | Denis Johnson |
Book Format | : | Hardcover |
Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 196 pages |
Published | : | April 27th 2009 by Farrar Straus Giroux (first published 2009) |
Categories | : | Fiction. Thriller. Mystery. Crime. Drama. Suspense. Noir |
Relation In Pursuance Of Books Nobody Move
From the National Book Award–winning, bestselling author of Tree of Smoke comes a provocative thriller set in the American West. Nobody Move, which first appeared in the pages of Playboy, is the story of an assortment of lowlifes in Bakersfield, California, and their cat-and-mouse game over $2.3 million. Touched by echoes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, Nobody Move is at once an homage to and a variation on literary form. It salutes one of our most enduring and popular genres—the American crime novel—but with a grisly humor and outrageousness that are Denis Johnson’s own. Sexy, suspenseful, and above all entertaining, Nobody Move shows one of our greatest novelists at his versatile best.Identify Books As Nobody Move
Original Title: | Nobody Move |
ISBN: | 0374222908 (ISBN13: 9780374222901) |
Edition Language: | English |
Setting: | Bakersfield, California(United States) |
Rating Based On Books Nobody Move
Ratings: 3.26 From 5267 Users | 620 ReviewsRate Based On Books Nobody Move
Id seen Nobody Movea palate-cleansing trifle (relatively speaking) from Denis Johnsonon bookstore shelves for around four years, and I consumed its 196 pages within half a day. The dark noir novel caters to an appetite for violence of the bloody style committed with caustic verbal flair in a skeeve-screw-skeeve kind of world. Nobody Move wont strike the chords of existential dread ringing out from Angels; its environment is not the deeply rendered and disturbed alternative Eden of Already DeadThis was a damn good read. It combines the cheap thrills and casual violence of a typical noir with the perfectly crafted sentences and deft-characterization found in a literary novel. The book is brief, maybe too brief(my ARC copy was 195 pages set in giant type with massive swathes of blank bordering) but maybe thats a good thing after Johnsons most recent door stop of a novel `Tree of Smoke, a massive, tedious lunge at the great American Novel, that to me, failed miserably. `Nobody Moves is
Two word review: Very meh. Unexpected side effect during or after reading: Urge to read a better crime novel. New thing I learned from reading this book: Singers in barber shop quartets may not be as wholesome as they seem.General observations: The jacket notes on this book gave me heartburn right off the bat:"Touched by echoes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, Nobody Move is at once an homage to and a variation on literary form. It salutes one of our most enduring and popular genresthe
Original review: If I was grading this on the scale that I apply to a lot of books, I might give it something closer to a three. But the thing is, I don't think there's an easy way to have a scale that applies to all books. I'm sure some people do. They have their criteria and they work from that, and maybe for all intents and purposes, that suits them just fine. For me, I'll admit, there's plenty that goes into that star rating up there, even if it seems that all I ever do is rate books a four
Of Johnson's work, Jesus' Son is my favorite and Nobody Move is my most recent. I'll have to read a second time to confirm my suspicion that Johnson's humor is bone-deep as is his love for loser protagonists. They come out equal parts do-gooder and total fuck-up.This book comes off as a quick and dirty assignment, something to play at, after years of toil on Tree of Smoke. And I'm still trying to figure its introductory remarks on war.Anyway, there are plenty of lines to love in Nobody Move.
Here's the thing about Denis Johnson:I don't love any single book he's written but I really love him as a writer. He's super versatile and does all kinds of styles and genres, but none of his attempts--that I've read yet--has been the kind of book that I can't imagine living without. Of course, I'd also recommend every single book I've read by him, and this is no exception.It's hilarious, it's violent, it's complex, it's seductive, it's mysterious, and it's just fun. Johnson's take on noir is
0 Comments