
Angels puts Jamie Mays--a runaway wife toting along two kids--and Bill Houston--ex-Navy man, ex-husband, ex-con--on a Greyhound bus for a dark, wild ride cross country. Driven by restless souls, bad booze, and desperate needs, Jamie and Bill bounce from bus stations to cheap hotels as they ply the strange, fascinating, and dangerous fringe of American life. Their tickets may say Phoenix, but their inescapable destination is a last stop marked by stunning violence and mind-shattering surprise. Denis Johnson, known for his portraits of America's dispossessed, sets off literary pyrotechnics on this highway odyssey, lighting the trek with wit and a personal metaphysics that defiantly takes on the world.
Two desperate individuals, Jamie Mays and Bill Houston, collide on a Greyhound bus, initiating a volatile cross-country odyssey through the fringes of American society. Jamie, a runaway mother with two children, and Bill, a man defined by his history as an ex-convict and former sailor, seek escape from their pasts while navigating a landscape of substance abuse and instability. Their movement is dictated by the erratic rhythms of bus travel and the search for transient security in cheap motels. The narrative framework captures their aimless trajectory, emphasizing the physical and psychological decay of characters existing on the margins of the American dream.
Discussion often centers on the author's unflinching examination of characters who exist outside the boundaries of conventional society. Readers frequently highlight the stark, unvarnished prose that captures the bleakness of the protagonists' circumstances without resorting to sentimentality. Critics often point to the balance between the characters' internal metaphysical inquiries and the external chaos of their environment. The work is noted for its ability to maintain a sense of impending dread throughout the narrative, culminating in a conclusion that challenges the reader's expectations of resolution.
Page Count:
224
Publication Date:
1985-01-01
Publisher:
King Penguin Penguin Books
ISBN-10:
0140070915
ISBN-13:
9780140070910
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