Reviewing the Reviewers: Another Postmodern Review of Denis Johnson

Biblioklept has a interesting review of Denis Johnson's Nobody Move. Their review makes some similar comparisons to recent postmodern crime novels, and it even picks up on the theme of subverting the traditional crime novel. However Biblioklept sees Nobody Move as a great or at least a really good book, and I can't agree. Here is their explanation,

Nobody Move is fantastic as a genre exercise, witty, dark, lean, and hard-boiled, transcending the bad or formulaic writing that can plague the genre’s novels but never trying to transcend its tropes. Put another way, Johnson here demonstrates that he can master a genre that is not his, and that he can do it under the constraints of space and time. That’s quite a feat, if you think about it, especially if you compare Nobody Move to Thomas Pynchon's recent genre exercise, Inherent Vice, or the detective-centered works of Jonathan Lethem like Motherless Brooklyn and Gun, With Occasional Music. Pynchon’s work is in many ways a covert, loving goof on the genre, but it’s still more or less a “Thomas Pynchon” book. Lethem likes the idea of writing crime noir, but he wants to subvert it, mash it up with sci-fi, see it as a form of post-modern allegory... But I think contrasting what they are trying to do with what Johnson is trying to do is instructive. There’s a purity to Nobody Move, to its utter willingness to simply be what it is–and many folks won’t like that; they may even accuse Johnson of slumming. Perhaps they think it’s easy to write a tight, funny crime novel.

I, simply, disagree with a couple of points that they make. First I don't really think the novel is that well written or that funny. While the novel has a few good gags it largely seems to fall flat. Its characters are more sad than humorous. Denis Johnson is too interested in lowlifes and scum, which would be fine if the characters were shone as actual characters, but instead the reader is given sad caricatures, that Nobody Move cruelly plays with. Even the few upper class characters are still shown as seedy and true lowlifes, which deserve and will probably get no empathy from most readers. While the novel borders on black humor, I struggled to care enough to laugh, and perhaps that is because of the passivity of the main character. In my main review I called him an anti-antihero, but perhaps even more fitting is the idea of post-postmodern hero.

In David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest  this idea is outlined in a strange way, seemingly as a joke. An essay that Hal wrote when he was young is shared with the reader; it is about crime dramas, and in the last paragraph it projects a Post-Postmodern drama, in which the hero will do nothing at all. This passive hero is Jimmy Luntz, who as the Biblioklept review points out is completely and perfectly described by his name. Nobody Move is a cruel, nihilistic postmodern landscape for a passive hero like Jimmy to be placed, yet that is exactly where Johnson puts Luntz. I could do nothing but shake my head, and look sadly on at his inaction. This didn't make for an enjoyable read exactly, but it did work well as an allegory. This point flies in the face of Biblioklept's review of course, but I guess that whats makes this post interesting.

Nobody Move isn't a bad book, but I also must disagree with the generally positive light they give the novel. I think it is something that maybe worth read--though more for someone interested in its postmodern allegory than for a Denis Johnson fan. My disagreements aside, Biblioklept wrote a great review, and to anyone who is interested I highly recommend their different opinion as a great read.

Biblioklept