Annals of Important Works of Fiction (Post-Kerouac Division)

As we reported here yesterday, Andrew Carroll has a minimum high regard for Jack Kerouac (link).

Denis Johnson is featured on the front page of today's New York Times book review (link), where Jim Lewis says he is "a true American artist." Today's Times also reports that “Jesus’ Son,” by Denis Johnson, “was voted one of the most important works of fiction of the last 25 years in the Book Review’s 2006 poll of writers and critics" (link).

Here’s a sample of "Jesus' Son," culled from Amazon’s “surprise me” feature. Wonder what Andrew Carroll would think of this:

The black man stood up and circled the neck of a beer bottle with his fingers. He was taller than anyone who had ever entered that barroom.

“Step outside,” Wayne said.

And the man said, “This ain’t school.”

“What the goddamn fucking piss-hell,” Wayne said, “is that supposed to mean?”

“I ain’t stepping outside like you do at school. Make your try right here and now.”

“This ain’t a place for our kind of business,” Wayne said, “not inside here with women and children and dogs and cripples.”

“Shit,” the man said, “You’re just drunk.”

“I don’t care,” Wayne said. “To me you don’t make no more noise than a fart in a paper bag.”

The huge, murderous man said nothing.

“I’m going to sit down now,” Wayne said, “and I’m going to lay my game, and fuck you.”

Johnson says "My ear for the diction and thythms of poetry was trained by--in chronological order--Dr. Seuss, Dylan Thomas, Walt Whitman, the guitar solos of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, and T.S. Eliot." As T. S. Eliot liked to say, fuckety fuck.