I wonder if that isn’t the secret of his greatness. I wonder if his mania doesn’t ease the pressure of his genius and make it bearable.
Our country’s finest poet, Marcus Ahearn, hasn’t published a poem in fifteen years, not a single line of verse. Two days ago, on Elvis’s birthday, the Memphis police arrested him at Graceland. I wouldn’t be surprised if the waking of the Elvis beast coincided with a creative burst, another remarkable book.
Two months ago I got an email from Mark Ahearn in which he picked up a very old thread: The timeshare story—remember the Brights, Ron and Opal? The chronology there would indicate that in November, 1958, Elvis was already a ghost. He stated that he’d been walking the streets of Paradise—deceased. In 1958.
I answered instantly, pointing out that in order to accept this proof that Elvis was in Paradise in 1958, we first have to accept life after death, Paradise, ghosts, all of that.
Mark answered a couple of days later, I smile and shrug. Life after death, ghosts, Paradise, eternity—of course, we take all that as granted. Otherwise where’s the fun?
He closed the first message—Peace/Love/Elvis. The second—
Elvisly Yours.
JOE,
CARTER,
WINKY,
BOBBY Z.
BY DENIS JOHNSON
FICTION
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
The Laughing Monsters
Train Dreams
Nobody Move
Tree of Smoke
The Name of the World
Already Dead: A California Gothic
Jesus’ Son
Resuscitation of a Hanged Man
The Stars at Noon
Fiskadoro
Angels
NONFICTION
Seek: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond
POETRY
The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly
The Veil
The Incognito Lounge
Inner Weather
The Man Among the Seals
PLAYS
Soul of a Whore and Purvis: Two Plays in Verse
Shoppers: Two Plays
Denis Johnson was the author of nine novels, one novella, two books of short stories, five collections of poetry, two collections of plays, and one book of reportage. Among other honors, his novel Tree of Smoke won the 2007 National Book Award and was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize, and Train Dreams was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize.
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Denis Johnson, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
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