Angels: A Novel

"Sunday Morning" is a meditative poem by the American poet Wallace Stevens (1879 -- 1955) that celebrates the beauty of the physical world and its transience juxtaposed with themes of religion. Stevens tells his story through a beautiful woman gazing at the sea. The phrase "death is the mother of beauty" occurs twice in the poem. In stanza V, Stevens writes:"She says, 'But in contentment I still feelThe need of some imperishable bliss.'Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreamsAnd our desires."In the following stanza, Stevens says:"Death is the mother of beauty, mystical,Within whose burning bosom we deviseOur earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly."On one level, Denis Johnson's first novel "Angels" (1983) could hardly be more different from Stevens' poem. Stevens and his character are erudite, highly educated, and well to do. The characters in Johnson's novel are drug users, alcoholics, and criminals all of whom are emeshed in poverty. They lack the rudiments of an education which would create interest in a writer such as Wallace Stevens.Yet, there is a clear and often repeated allusion to Stevens' poem in "Angels". The final scene in Johnson's novel is set in a dismal prison in the Arizona desert where one of the primary characters, Bill Houston, is awaiting execution. The gas chamber in which Houston is to be executed bears the (unattributed) inscription "Death is the mother of beauty." Houston meditates on the meaning of this difficult phrase as he awaits his fate: and the haunting line becomes a way to get to think about Johnson's story."Angels" offers a gritty look at American low life in the 1980s. The two primary characters, Bill Houston and Jamie Mays, meet on a cross-country Greyhound bus from Oakland. Jamie has two small children and is fleeing her marriage in the hope of meeting up with her sister in Hershey, Pennsylvania. On the bus, she begins a relationship with Houston, an alcoholic ex-con and Navy veteran. The relationship takes the couple through the streets and bars of Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Phoenix and through much sleaze and violence. After Jamie is brutally raped in Chicago, she and Houston take the bus to Huston's family home in Phoenix. Huston, his two brothers, and another man attempt the heist of a large bank, in a scene reminiscent of many film noirs The heist goes awry and the four men are picked up. Bill Houston is tried for the killing of a guard. Jamie for her part suffers a nervous breakdown and is institutionalized. She works to become free of alcohol and substance addiction.Johnson tells a story of grimness and sadness while showing as well an affection for his people with all their self-inflicted wounds. The book is less a cohesive novel than a series of interconnected vignettes. It succeeds in finding beauty in its characters and places through its writing. Like Stevens, Johnson is a poet who illuminates the lives he sees through writing and imagination. While in "Sunday Morning" Stevens saw the transience, beauty, and spirituality of life through the thoughts of a cultivated, beautiful woman, Johnson works to show these traits in the lives of his down and out characters.Johnson is probably best known for his book "Jesus' Son" which I have read together with his late novella "Train Dreams". In many ways, the lurid beauty of "Angels" may capture Johnson at his best. I was glad to read this first novel and to think about it together with one of my favorite poems and poets.Robin Friedman

Earlier in 2018, I was on a bit of a Southern gothic horror reading kick. A book that popped up on a couple of suggested reading lists was ANGELS by Denis Johnson. I also discovered this book mentioned when I was doing some Internet research on David Foster Wallace. In addition, in some of the summaries of the book it mentioned that it was a road trip novel of horrific proportions and since I was planning a road trip later this year, it intrigued me. So, with all those recommendations I picked up a copy of the book to read.Jamie Mays takes her two young children with her on a bus to run away from her husband whom she discovered was cheating on her. She's headed for her sister-in-law's (Pittsburgh? or Philadelphia?, I forget which) to start a new life. On the bus, she meets Bill Houston. Bill is several years older than Jamie and is an ex-Navy man, divorced husband, and ex-con. He takes a liking to Jamie and she to him. She never makes it to her original destination and finds herself living in hotels with Bill until his money runs out. He goes to Chicago. She follows him there. Something horrible happens there. He eventually finds her and they travel back to Bill's hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. There Bill meets up with his two younger brothers and another man and they plan a bank heist. However, the heist doesn't go anywhere as planned and things go horribly wrong. Bill kills a guard and is sentenced to the gas chamber. In the meantime, Jamie has become a drug addict and finds herself committed in an institution where she undergoes all kinds of things from waterboarding to shock therapy. That pretty much is the story.Denis Johnson was a good writer. His writing style captures and embodies every line of desperation and despair that resonates throughout ANGELS.However, with that said, ANGELS really isn't that good of a book. Not only that, but the book is not a piece of horror fiction as I was led to believe and it's really not a travel novel either. When I picked up ANGELS, I thought I would be reading a horror story set on a bus where a demon was in disguise as a person and was prompting otherwise good people to do horrible things. But, no such luck. There's very little traveling that takes place (most of the traveling is skipped over in flash-forwards) and other than what happens to Jamie in Chicago, there really isn't any horror either. To me, the book reminded me of some of the trash I had to read in college for certain college professors who liked to require us to read "modern novels" that were "grim" and "brutal." I realize that there's a certain reading audience that enjoys those stories (such as stories by Raymond Carver, whom Denis Johnson studied under), but I'm not one of them. I enjoy stories that are actually good stories: stories where there's either interesting plot, interesting characters, character development, or some mixture of those. ANGELS has none of those. Bill Houston is the most interesting character in the book, but we really don't know much more about Bill at the end of the novel than we do at the beginning. Although he's sent to the gas chamber, outside of his physical appearance, he's the same man that we met on the bus to Pennsylvania. While in prison, we see semblances of a man attempting to forge something out of his life and impending death, but in the end, all that Bill Houston's death sentence does is give a child molester a chance to escape the same fate and live in prison the rest of his life.Besides all that, I have to admit, I have no idea where Johnson got the idea for the title of his book. There are no angels anywhere in ANGELS (the closest thing to angels in the whole novel are Bill's mother and his defense attorney, Fredericks). There really aren't any demons either (although the rapists in Chicago could possibly be seen as that). To me it seems like Johnson decided that he would title his novel on something that had nothing to do with it and chose ANGELS.In short, if you enjoy the works of Raymond Carver and other authors who wrote meaningless, dark and despairing fiction, then ANGELS is something you might enjoy. The writing is good, but the story is not. The book is not a piece of horror and it is not a piece of travel fiction and really has nothing to do with angels, good or bad.

I very rarely review on here, but that this book isn't more widely acclaimed is scandalous. Harold Bloom's 'the Western Canon' included 3 Johnson titles (his 3 best at time of publication, namely this one, Fiskadoro and Jesus' Son), compared to one from the much more lauded authors such as John Updike.He rightly described the penultimate chapter as one of the most extraordinary pieces of writing in modern literature.I realise you might consider this some weak appeal to authority, but I just can't emphasise enough how magnificent an achievement Angels is.I used to buy 1st edition UK paperback copies and the Faber hardback reissue for a quid or two back in the 90s. I'm now reduced to one battered old paperback as no-one I've lent it to has agreed to return it. If it was any other book I'd have been annoyed, to say the least, but I totally empathise. Don't deny yourself the experience. Vastly superior than the likes of the glib Raymond Carver he would occasionally be compared to, much of this is closer to Hubert Selby country.Of his later books, I also hugely recommend the novella Train Dreams, his book of journalism Seek, and the collection of 2 plays, Shoppers Carried by Escalators into the Flames.

I'm glad to see so many other positive reviews here. I'm really impressed by this book - I don't usually read fiction (no big policy decision, just always have a backlog of non-fiction to get thru). I can't remember how I first came across Denis Johnson, and had a false start with "Jesus' Son", which I didn't get into but will give another try now.It's a really atmospheric, claustrophobic story of Jamie and her two children and Bill, with his dysfunctional family, all like the lowlifes of Tom Waits' songs. The writing really reminds me of Hubert Selby at his best, except with the New York atmosphere replaced by something more Southern Gothic. A lot of the narrative is very much deep down in the detail of Jamie and Bill struggling thru life, drunk and speeding, and the various hustlers and squalid scenes they have to live with. But every so often, the clouds part - as it were - and there are passages of really lyrical, beautiful writing, where the author steps back from the squalor and takes a longer, more forgiving view of his characters and the games that they play. This kind of change of tone is very hard to pull off and is what makes me want to read more of Denis Johnson's work. It isn't always an easy read - the mid-book descriptions of Jamie's mental meltdown are suitably freeform and chaotic - and the switches in narrative/character focus can be tricky at times too, but it's well worth the effort.

IF you are considering whether to or not.........DO !!It made me laugh out loud and get some 'looks' on the train. In England, if you laugh on the train people will look at you funny. So, it helps if you have a book in your hands!! This is the one to have. So black and poignant and brilliantly written! Awesome in parts. The beginning feels like REAL life - like the other Denis Johnson I've read, Jesus' Son - then the middle section which is into David Lynch territory, then the last half which is getting back to very harsh reality which is where I'm up to now with it. Cant wait to get on my commuter train and carry on reading !! Very highly recommended. Brits cant write like this! (I'm British - I wish I could !). If you like Harry Crews et al - you'll dig this book.

Superb novel by an amazing writer who doesn't get the exposure & kudos in the UK that he does in the States. Bleak, downbeat, etc. but beautifully written & totally engaging from first page to last. Like John Banville, worth reading for the sentences alone.

A really original slice of the underbelly of white trash America.You never know what to expect next, or from which of the characters.Very good, and I will certainly look out for more from this author.