Will I love Jesus' Son?

This is a classic collection about the lost souls of American society who have not only failed to realise the American Dream but have been wrecked by it. Outcasts, drug addicts, prostitutes, criminals, the desolate and the damned. These are stories told from the inside rather than with an anthropological observation; their narrators share the experience of those who live by different rules or no rules at all, their narrative frameworks are skewed towards the psychotic and surreal. But the language is what makes this collection exceptional. With the brilliance and sharpness of a diamond, Johnson’s prose tears his characters… show more.

This is one of the seminal works of American literature, which happens to be set in the Midwest.

The characters' lives are filled with pointless rebellion and recreational drugs. For those of us who grew up in small-town Midwest in the 1980s, this dredges up a lot of nostalgia. We may not have been quite as debauched, but we all knew someone like Shithead, the main character, and remember them fondly.

On any given day, this is my favorite book with one of my favorite bars, The Vine, a dive that Johnson describes as “like a railroad club car that had somehow run itself off the tracks into a swamp of time where it awaited the blows of the wrecking ball.” Is it a nice place? No. Would you take a date here? Not if you wanted them to respect you. Could you find yourself in mortal danger? Absolutely. But amongst the addicts and runaways, the small-time crooks and ne’er do wells, you’ll find moments of beauty that transcend the pain… show more.

For uptight readers like me who can barely handle a stiff drink, the Druggy Road Trip genre can feel dumb and snobbish. But Johnson’s close, lucid prose is, well, addictive. Strung out in small-town ’70s America, a young guy called F**khead navigates unreality in 11 intertwined stories. The collection is just over 100 pages, and by the end, F**khead finds himself across the country and in rehab. But sobriety isn’t even the point. Passages like this are: “Georgie and I had a terrific time driving around. For a while the day was clear and peaceful. It was one of the… show more.

On the first date with my now-husband, he asked that typical question: What’s your favorite book? And despite it being a typical question I didn’t have an immediate answer. I love to read about psychology, neurology, linguistics, and cosmology, but those aren’t really the types of books that make you call out a favorite. I remember later staring at my bookcase and asking myself which one I could say was my favorite. On the next date I handed him my copy of Jesus’ Son. It’s an addictive page-turner and a quick read, so a few days later he'd finished… show more.