Review - Nobody Move

I'm not really sure why I'm posting a review of a Denis Johnson novel. Others, far more worthy than myself have been lauding, praising and generally blowing their literary smoke up his backside for years.

However, I found Johnson's previous offering, Tree of Smoke, to be a confused, over elaborate, rambling tome of a book, and it nearly finished him for me. So I picked up Nobody Move, more in hope than expectation, but boy, am I glad I did.

Nobody Move is as straight up as the pump action on a 12 gauge Remington (Click-Clack). It feels like Johnson, finally freed from his extended labours on Tree of Smoke, wrote this one quick and dirty.

It's a raging crime caper, full of brilliant, spare prose and wicked, dark humour. The story races along at a speed that will make your eyes water and your ass twitch. Johnson never misses a beat, or the opportunity to splatter the page with 'cherry pie'. He draws his wiseguy characters wonderfully and gives them smart mouth dialogue that crackles back and forth like crossed wires.

Put your back to the wall, open a bottle of Bourbon, keep a loaded thirty-eight on the side, and read this in one hard boiled sitting. My faith in all things Johnson is now restored.