Absolutely gutwrenching. Wow. What a superb debut novel. The style was somewhere between McCarthy and DeLillo. Pitch-perfect and painful and brilliant.

gnarliest ever and so unbelievably lovely. in st denis’ name we pray

If I ever make it to the end of this short novel it will be a miracle. If I had something good to say about it, I'd tell you.

Spoiler Alert! The title Angels is a misnomer.

Denis Johnson's vision of spirituality in a fallen world holds an intense fascination for me. This is a novel about broken-down, desperate, miserable characters and yet- and yet - they somehow walk with divine grace. Johnson is unflinching in his depiction of the circles of hell through which they travel (one scene in particular is among the most disturbing I have ever endured) but at the core of the novel, beyond the ultimate hell- the hell of the self- is a sense of hope both elusive and, paradoxically, blinding in its purity. Heaven and hell, hope and despair, worldly filth and spiritual cleanliness: seeming opposites are twinned like twisted serpents through these dazzlingly written pages. The effect is transcendent.

You want it darker? Then here you go. It's dark from the outset and it never lets up. These are the nighthawks at the diner, the busted flat, the down and out, the seated-in-a-hard-plastic-chair-staring-out-the-window-of-the-bus-station-at-2am, the hopelessly lost, the addicts, the losers, the criminals. The 5am dive-bar regulars. The subject of Tom Waits' songs, Bukowski poems, Burroughs' nightmares. And, again, it never lets up. I'll not go into spoilers, subject matter, how it ends, that sort of thing. Just know you're in for a dark, desolate ride. All in all, I would recommend it. It's fine writing. But just know what you're getting into. You'll need a bit of respite after this one, but it will stay with you all the same.

«Fredericks conocía la leyenda que circulaba entre los presos: durante meses, a las nueve en punto de la noche, la luz de una vela brilló en una ventana de la ciudad. Los internos de las celdas altas, maravillados, podían verla e imaginaban, cada uno de ellos, que relucía para él solo. Pero no era más que una leyenda, una historia para contar algo, para pasar el rato mientras la violencia del hombre se apaga, o lo consume, según quién sea la bujía y quién sea la llama».

A reread. Angels was my Big Bang into Johnson many years ago. Terrific, terrifying novel.

3 stars for being just ok.
1/2 star extra for starting out in a greyhound station.
1/2 star extra for pulling off such a solid and steady intensity til the end.

I wish we'd've seen some of the euphoria associated with all the drugs these people were consuming...because it would have been nice to see a little bit of what all the fuss was about. I wish there'd've been a bit more of the trippy angel/demon stuff too, to make the title stick better.

Thanks to this, and "jesus' son" I'll always think of Arizona as some kind of post rehab purgatory..

Also does anyone else think the Houston boys mother should have her own book?

I'd rather give this something closer to a "4.5" -- I'm trying to reserve 5-star ratings for works that truly blow me away / change the way I see the world -- but here we are, with a 5-point scale, and I'll give this a "very strong 4".

This was Johnson's first novel, and it's beautifully, sometimes brutally written. Johnson had an incredible knack for getting readers to empathize with characters who might, at least on the surface, appear unlikeable to the average reader (petty criminals, drug addicts, negligent parents, etc), and "Angels" is no exception. This book is dark, and because of that sometimes a bit of a rough read, but beautifully-written. And it's almost certain to expand readers' understanding that even those usually residing at the outer fringes of our empathy and love deserve of our attention and understanding.

“Even as his heart accelerated, it seemed to him inexplicably that his heart was slowing down. You can get right in between each beat, and let the next one wash over you like the best and biggest warm ocean there ever was.”

Scorrevolezza: 5 stelle
Personaggi: 4
Trama: non è MAI importante
Dialoghi: 5
Vedere il film del libro mentre lo stai leggendo: 5
Scene di follia amfetaminica: 5 con lode
Perché si trova poca roba di Johnson in italiano: perché il mondo è cattivo, baby.

Johnson fonde disgusto e poesia in un trip allucinato che sfocia nel Pulp/ hard boiled. io mi ci sono immerso, ho fatto un gran viaggio e mentre i personaggi sbarellavano ho sbarellato anche io con loro, come mi succede solo coi libri potenti. Angeli è potente. Forse non è un libro da 5 stelle ma che cazzo, io gliele do lo stesso.
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One of Johnson's best, and he's at his best when relatively pared down and going for the heart rather than the brain.