"She Was Glorious, Burning..."

I met Denis Johnson the other night, the author of the fantastic Jesus Son.

For awhile there, I had this weird relationship with Jesus Son. The lovely Ms. Jennifer Miller was reading it, and I think I was attracted to the title as I was beginning a Velvet Underground phase in my life.

In the song Heroin, Lou Reed sings “And I feel just like Jesus’ son”

Jenny M. proclaimed that this book was her favorite and she had read it multiple times. This seemed like high praise indeed as, and I can’t say why specifically, Jenny doesn’t seem like the sort of person who would read a book more than once. In fact, she sort seems like the kind of person who would mercilessly scorn a person who admitted to reading a book more than once.

That may not be true, and again, I cannot say why I feel that way.

At around the same time, I was taking a creative writing class at SFSU and we read a short story at the start of class that made me kind of stop and go, “whoah, that was good”. Unbeknownst to me at the time, it was the first part of Denis Johnson’s Jesus Son.

Then, not long after, I was visiting C&G and noticed a copy of Jesus Son on their bookshelf. I mentioned to Chris that I had been running into this book multiple times and heard it was good. He said to me, in all seriousness –

“If I have not recommended this book to you, I have been remiss as a friend.”

What did I expect on meeting Denis Johnson? Did I want him to be taken by my natural greatness, so much so that he felt the need to write something about me, something specifically for me? Of course, but that’s what I expect out of everyone I meet…

He looked like someone’s uncle from Woodburn, Oregon or maybe Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; older, weather worn, dressed in a flannel jacket. He seemed really uncomfortable being around people he didn’t know. I shook his hand and told him it was a pleasure to meet him. I was then immediately forgotten as actors circled the writer and did their actor thing.

It was sort of heartening to find that someone fairly accomplished was still just this uncomfortable and seriously normal guy.