Johnson succeeds so well as to make one eager for more
- John Sutherland, London Review of Books
A beautifully tragic chronicle
New York Magazine
Denis Johnson is one of our most inventive, unpredictable novelists
New York Times Book Review
Johnson knows his people inside out, their lost, lonely, never-had-a-chance lives. He knows how they talk and think, and he makes us know them too
Publishers Weekly
One of the strongest examples of fiction noir since Robert Stone's first work appeared-with an absence of sentimentality and an overall shape that's perfectly judged, this is one of the most impressive first novels of recent seasons - full of a fiery recoiling kick, the dreadful power of inhuman ugliness and misfortune beyond redemption
Kirkus Reviews