Angels by Denis Johnson

Angels by Denis Johnson. 1983 Knopf, first edition, 209 pages. Johnson was a novelist and poet who garnered acclaim for his short-story collection Jesus's Son and award-winning novel Tree of Smoke. According to New York Times, "[His] novels and short stories about the fallen — junkies, down-and-out travelers, drifters and violent men in the United States and abroad — emerged in ecstatic, hallucinatory and sometimes minimalist prose." Angels was Johnson's first novel. Alice Hoffman wrote in her review for the New York Times: "'Angels' is a terrifying book, a mixture of poetry and obscenity. Some readers may be put off by its melodrama and nearly overwhelming sense of desperation. But whether the characters are conversing with a dark angel or ordering a platter of french fries, they are people who can't be ignored. Mr. Johnson has written a dazzling and savage first novel." Condition: VG, some shelf wear to the jacket "In the Oakland Greyhound all the people were dwarfs, and they pushed