Denis Johnson’s NOBODY MOVE in the Washington Post
My review of the National Book Award winner’s foray into crime fiction – now in novel form after first appearing within the pages of Playboy four issues in a row – runs today in the Washington Post. Here’s how it opens:
It may seem odd that Denis Johnson has followed up on his National Book
Award-winning "Tree of Smoke," a sprawling novel about the Vietnam War,
with its diametric opposite, a slim, blackly comic crime tale
reminiscent of those published by Fawcett Gold Medal half a century
ago. But John Banville made a similar move when he adopted the name
Benjamin Black for his crime novels after he won the Booker Prize; Kate
Atkinson refashioned her voice within the detective fiction template;
and for each the change fits like a sleek leather glove. The same can't
quite be said of Johnson, but, like his literary colleagues in crime,
he displays a wicked sense of fun…
Award-winning "Tree of Smoke," a sprawling novel about the Vietnam War,
with its diametric opposite, a slim, blackly comic crime tale
reminiscent of those published by Fawcett Gold Medal half a century
ago. But John Banville made a similar move when he adopted the name
Benjamin Black for his crime novels after he won the Booker Prize; Kate
Atkinson refashioned her voice within the detective fiction template;
and for each the change fits like a sleek leather glove. The same can't
quite be said of Johnson, but, like his literary colleagues in crime,
he displays a wicked sense of fun…
Read on for the rest.