Angels

"Denis Johnson is one of our most inventive, unpredictable novelists." -- The New York Times Book Review This novel, which suggests a brilliant mixture of William Blake and James M. Cain, established Denis Johnson as a major talent in American fiction, a promise confirmed in his later books Fiskadoro and The Stars at Noon. Jamie Mays and Bill Houston meet on a Greyhound bus. She is fleeing an unfaithful husband and lugging two travel-stained children. He is on the rebound from stints in jail and the navy and looking for "high old times." Together, they make an aimless tour of bus stations and cheap hotels from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, their momentum fueled by booze, rage, and corrosive need, their journey a trajectory that leads inexorably to a moment of shattering violence. "A small masterpiece... prose of amazing power and stylishness." -- Philip Roth "A debut to be celebrated." -- Washington Post Book WorldJohnson, Denis is the author of 'Angels' with ISBN 9780394759876 and ISBN 0394759877.