A terrific series of reportage essays, as timely as they the day they were written. Really goes to show the range of Denis Johnson as a writer. Particularly powerful is the piece on his attempt to meet the Liberian president Charles Taylor (finally found guilty of war crimes in 2012). Gripping stuff.

I've read quite a bit of Denis Johnson's fiction. I especially liked Tree of Smoke, and Jesus' Son. But this book of journalism and essays, is something completely different.

He visits war torn countries like Irag, Afghanistan, Liberia, and Somalia.

His trip to Afghanistan was way before 9/11. When The Taliban were in power. He just crossed the Khyber Pass, and headed to Kabul. I was quite impressed with this trip. Unlike Don McCullin who tried to enter Afghanistan during the soviet invasion. His trip was successful.

Some of the more harrowing articles. Took place in Somalia and Liberia. Where countless macabre atrocities are described. I won't spoil the book and go into detail, but these articles left me somewhat disturbed and uneasy.

It's not all death and war though. He is a self described beatnik. And one essay, is about a trip to the rainbow gathering. Where he describes a psychedelic experience with psilocybin mushrooms.

Despite the uncomfortable subject matter, of some of the articles. This is definitely a book that's worth reading. And fully deserves the 5 stars that I've given it.

I've admired Denis Johnson's novels for years but only just got around to this nonfiction collection. He doesn't simply reprint his longform journalism; rather, he expands on the articles, offering novelistic depth and nuance. The best pieces are based on Johnson's reporting on the First Liberian Civil War, a horrific, cruel conflict with bizarre and surrealistic elements.

4 Stars.

This is one of the books I'm kicking myself for not getting around to writing a review there and then in the moment. This was really strong reportage. The reports from across America beg you think about the people as more than a cast of characters, despite each being so larger than life. The reports on Liberia's full-anarcho phoenix rebirth, bloody and violent were very well read, benefitting from a sense of cohesion placed so close together, and were very eye-opening for me.

Denis Johnson can certainly turn a phrase. I enjoyed several of the short stories in this book. My favorite was probably ‘The Lowest Bar in Montana’. The stories about Africa were too much for me. The first one was too violent and troubling. The last one ‘The Small Boys Unit’ seemed to drag on forever and I’m not sure what the point was. Never-the-less, except for that last story, the book was enjoyable

There's a religious intensity I get from reading Johnson that's impossible to replicate.

All of these journalistic essays are good but a few of them are great. In "Hippies," Johnson and a few of his old buddies (who were real hippies back in the day), come out of retirement to attend The Rainbow Festival in Oregon. Looking at his aged companions Johnson says "How did we all get so old? Sitting around laughing at old people probably caused it" (20). The guys relive some of their former excesses (shrooms and all), but Johnson is cynical, haunted: he knows where all of this goes. "In a four-square mile swatch of the Ochoco Forest the misadventures of a whole generation continue. Here in this bunch of 10,000 or 50,000 people somehow unable to count themselves I see my generation epitomized: a Peter Pan generation nannied by matronly Wendys like Bill and Hillary Clinton, our politics a confusion of Red and Green beneath the black flag of Anarchy; cross-eyed and well-meaning, self-righteous, self-satisfied; close-minded, hypocritical, intolerant - Loving You! - Sieg Heil!" (28). Johnson closes with a memory of his first acid trip, of the euphoria punctured by his mother's desperate "where have you been?!" - a question, the author realizes, that remains appropriate of him and all his fellow travelers on the hippie trail.

"Bikers for Jesus" tells about Johnson's trip to a Christian motorcycle rally/revival meeting. Though alienated by some of the charismatic culture, Johnson identifies with these people who have found a road out of violence and addiction. He recounts his own conversion to Christianity in this essay.

Finally, the pieces on Africa are brilliant: "The Civil War in Hell," "An Anarchist's Guide to Somolia," and "The Small Boy's Unit."

Goddamn some of these pieces are haunting. Not that they’re written in a haunting way. In fact they are written in a very straightforward, generous prose with great character observation and presence of mind. The subjects are just fractured pieces of humanity and DJ views them completely without judgment. Truly great reportage. An incredible nonfiction book, and not in some nerd-assed NPR way. No preachy nonsense and no moral lessons to be learned, just humanity.

The world through Denis Johnson's eyes, in this collection of stories about people on the fringes, farmers and honeymooners and rickshaw drivers and parasailers, is an armchair traveler's wet dream of minutiae. This kicked off my Denis Johnson obsession, which continued on to his novels.

Fantastic writing moving from humor to tragedy to utter frustration and peaks of joy. -J

n  Disappointing collection of essays; no comparison with Johnson’s best fiction. n

Jesus’s Son and Train Dreams are outstanding but I’ve not found Johnson’s other works to be even close in quality. This collection of journalistic reports focus on overseas conflict (Afghanistan, Liberia, Somalia) and on the weirder cultural fringes at home (bikers for Jesus, hippies, anti-abortion terrorists, and anti-government drop-outs of all varieties). Johnson’s journalistic approach is to embed himself non-judgmentally in a situation and report on the resulting weirdness. While this often produces interesting writing of an impressionistic flavor, it do not deliver cultural analysis of a “finished” quality: the background research is generally spotty and Johnson does not offer strong views on the situation—other than to generally sympathize with those hostile to government authority.

Johnson’s essays provide a reminder that conspiracy theories and anti-government views were widely supported by a surprisingly large segment of the US well before the Trump era. What was the cultural fringe in the 60s and 70s had become mainstream America in the 2000s. While Johnson’s tacit sympathies for fringe weirdness was amusing in the past, one suspects that he would be at home today with supporters at a Trump rally.

Given that many of the events reported in the collection speak to specific periods of American weirdness, it was an editorial crime not to indicate when and where the essays were first published.

I didn’t finish the last third of the collection.

Other Denis Johnson reviews
Jesus’ Son (1992) 5*
Train Dreams (2002) 5*
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden (2018) 3*

There is amazing writing in this book, reporting on situations and places most of us never go and that the news media never covers in depth. The hopelessness of war is made evident through a grueling effort of a reporter to get an interview with a self-proclaimed president of half of Liberia. It's not the graphic horror of the battlefield (though there is a little of that) but an exhausting, mind-boggling failure to get anywhere amidst a sort-of laid-back chaos that makes the point.

I have quibbles in the category of: 'found the title a bit misleading'. '...from the edges of America and beyond' made me expect more from America. Page-wise, probably half the book, maybe a little more is set in America, but I found several of the American stories a bit boring, particularly in comparison to the pieces set in Africa. All were well-written in a voice that manages to humble while also indicating smug frustration. But I found the stuff outside of America to carry the thrust of the book and liked them much more.