nobody move (denis johnson)

I think this is what they call a potboiler. I read its 200+ pages in about 24 hours. Calling a book a potboiler sounds like a cheap shot, but there’s a great deal of skill gone into the creation of this addictive novel. The predictable Johnson prose verve, and some great characters from the marginalia of some marginal corner of the USA. A loser shoots a villain in the leg but can’t bring himself to finish the job. The villain survives. The loser hooks up with a femme fatale. The bad guys close in, the big denouement happens. It feels slightly formulaic but highly effective. We’re back in the product versus art debate, which haunts my working days. This is product, but it’s product with a smattering of stardust. Read too many Nobody Moves and you’re going to overdose, but read one every now and again and it’s a timely reminder of the importance of pacing, simplicity and dramatic tension. Johnson’s novel, from that hinterland of American fiction which maps on to a hinterland of ‘merican society where bad things happen and both good and bad die young, might not kill fascists, but it still bites.