Have the 3 things I love on this channel: 1. Dark humour 2. Literature 3. Intelligent but not stuck-up KZread creator Keep it up. Have so many books to read now from your reviews.

Not much of a reader I must say but these reviews I find to be very articulate and highly addictive to watch, even if I have no current interest to actually read what he’s talking about. It started with The Consumer - M. Gira review, which I stumbled upon while browsing for Swans music. I later found a PDF file of that book, it was interesting to say the least. Needless to say I’ve been here ever since.

@stevegram9000

4 жыл бұрын

I think my favorite Swans album is White Light From the Mouth of Infinity. If you play that album super loud while on any psychedelic it takes you some weird places.

@csmoviles

4 жыл бұрын

I agree: exquisite language . I would, however, do just fine without the expletives , that are employed all too often in the videos.

@saulgoodman.exe_

4 жыл бұрын

Steve Gram White Light is good but The Great Annihilator & The Glowing Man are my favorites. All of their records from 1991 - now, are either very good or just complete masterpieces.

I've been living on your channel for days now. Thank you for your work!

I am finishing my second full read of "Largesse...." A completely different experience from the first read a few years ago. I really love this collection and I'm thinking it will become one of the books I return to many times to see what else is there. I enjoy your channel!

'Jesus' Son' is the book I always carry with me in my backpack.

@echosoblivion1

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely my favorite I have it on DVD and VHS as well

Denis Johnson wrote the introduction for Fat City in the NYRB edition. It is not even two pages long and it's one of the best introductions I've ever read.

@timkjazz

4 жыл бұрын

Agreed, he was a huge admirer of 'Fat City' and that intro is superb.

u gonna be doing ur favs of the year again?

I love Dennis Johnson. Jesus's Son is a personal favorite! I think the character Cass is in that book too. Can't wait to read this.

Hi Clifford, I've really appreciated your channel for a few years, especially that your selections seem uniquely your own yet rigorous and substantial. Your channel was one of the ones that encouraged me to make my own, and after finishing Demons by Dostoevsky, I have had the nagging feeling to recommend it if you haven't read it already. Thank you for sharing your good taste and thoughts. (also I breezed through Faust recently but want to return to it to do a good review, I smiled at seeing you beat me to the punch)

love ya buddy, hope you have a great holidays ❤️

I was lucky enough to meet Denis at AZ State Univ a few times, and he was great, very forthcoming. I love his "Incognito Lounge" for poetry and _Dead Already_ and the National Book Award winning epic _Tree of Smoke,_ especially.

I love your reviews and this one in particular made me remember a spectacular collection I read last year called the Patrick Melrose sequence. Have you read it or heard of it? I couldn't find much content on the internet about but I think it is just what you would like to read.

"It's not magical realism, but is realism that feels magical".

Thanks for motivating me to read again.

I would like to tell you, dear sir, that I have not read a word of Johnson's work, but after watching your review I cannot wait to dive in.

Always reading hard and working hard for us illiterate folks, Thanks for that and Happy Holidays. P.S. A 2020 TBR or 2019 review would be great if you could spare the time and energy.

I love how you focus on Death!!!

I very much recommend Fiskadoro by him if you are going to delve deeper. I'm sure once you do, that tipping point of what makes him a special writer will hit you.

Love Johnson, I think you nailed his cadre with the folks you named at the end. But I've only read Jesus' Son, Train Dreams, and a couple of the Sea Maiden stories in mags. I really want to read his whole oeuvre. Really enjoyed your review.

its the best reading channel on youtube. its da best.

I didn't know you did reviews on 21st Century authors! What a nice change.

Leg surgery on acid! Elvis conspiracy! Sold! ... hey Cliff, you got me into four writers I absolutely adore now: Lispector, Sabato, Harry Crews and Babbitz. I got some Machado on order along with Invention of Morel. I think I'm going to love this guy too. And I love Raymond Carver, Cormac and Coffee and Cigarettes. Have a good new year. Peace.

If you like dark humor definitely check out Venedikt Erofeev's Moscow to the end of the line. That one had me cracking up a couple times.

Can anyone remember the review in which Cliff quotes a character, a sailor, as saying, "I have seen the world. It is horrible everywhere"? I can't remember the book, but I can't forget the line...

Have you ever stumbled across the writings of James Chapman? Pieces like "The Walls Collide as You Expand, Dwarf Maple", "Our Plague; A Film From New York", "Daughter, I Forbid Your Recurring Dream, or "In Candyland It's Cool to Feed on Your Friends".

Felt the exact same way you did after reading the book in your hands, then I read Jesus' Son. Found the something. Nothing else like it, the glancing into the darkness while dancing in the light. Great review. Happy reading!

Loved the review. I think I spotted a Gravity's Rainbow spine in the back, have you read it already? if so, are you planning on making a review?

@Anti-Librarian_

4 жыл бұрын

You've a very sharp eye and memory. I recognised that after seeing your comment. I had switch to my PC-

LOVED this book! Next to Jesus's Son and Angels as my favorite. Train Dreams is okay; the protagonist Robert Grainier is too stoic for me, but the supporting and minor characters are so lively and fascinating.

A genie appears out of a touch lamp at my Aunt and Uncle's home in Lynchberg Virginia and grants me three wishes. 1. Wish I knew Japanese intimately and fluently. 2. Something to do with having sex finally or wish I could play the piano. 3. Wish I was more well read than Clifford Lee Sergeant.

Do favourites of the year. Please.

You mentioned Jesus' Son and Train Dreams, but I hope you read his very first novel called Angels. I found it in a tiny bookstore in Las Vegas back in the mid-1980s. Ripped my guts out.

How are your reviews so good

Big admirer of Jarmusch movies here!

Jesus’ Son and Train Dreams, yes Cliff. You could read them both in a couple days. They are both masterpieces. Angels, Johnson’s first novel is astounding and completely, criminally, overlooked in the modern cannon. Also, Resuscitation of a Hanged Man is not just one of the greatest titles of all time, but a fantastic and utterly forgotten novel. Dive in, succumb, and drown in the world of Denis Johnson.

not even a minute in and I've added the book to my list

"...gritty, dark, morbid...f*cked up..." I'm sold. Where can I get my copy?

Excellent review again, my man. Pretty good book, from what I can remember, and I happen to prefer it to Train Dreams. Jesus' Son has been on my wish list for ages.

A humane and wholesome review, Denis Johnson should not be forgotten. To anyone who is interested Jesus' Son the film is an oddball classic. Also Melville House Publishing is a quality publishing house like Fitzcarraldo Editions in the UK. Your brother in Christ indeed.

Don't miss Train Dreams. You can read it in an afternoon.

I know I'm late to this review of Denis Johnson, but you should read Jesus's Son, Train Dreams, The Stars at Noon, and my favorite Fiskadoro.

I'm your 100th like

I have to pick this up solely because of your tear-filled laughter. So pure. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy NEEDS (nay, demands!) to be your next read/review.

what do you work as?

Denis Johnson is amazing. Loved Train Dreams. DFW said Angels from Denis Johnson is one of the most underrated American novels. Train Dreams felt like a blend of Nick Cave, McCarthy, Donald Ray Pollock, and Faulkner. Awesome review. Thanks Cliff!

I just about did a spit take on "I should be Dead"!

You should read something from Ivo Andric, a yugoslovanian writer

wrote this at barnes and noble today after reading first act of hamlet, my name is still jack konrad i do with apparency sting my lungs so for to induce sermon upon the stung ere i dream lastly through what i sung to charm as beggar the winds that cringe an arm or leg for the heavens to binge i stream god like through the mantle of shame a rose-inflated eye in which you're never the same the throes of lust are imputing the wound's flash and i steal the grapes that give grammar my sash and all day listening to wine that drips upon the glade from a claw, raven black, yarned from your shade can i be but you in the night-flexed return of maiden to man, man to maid, said i with the drill flaming the night's cultivated pallor a sill for to throw myself into the ballet of your hatred.

@stevelawrence8945

4 жыл бұрын

Just a short note.... To let you know....... Your rhymes are awful....... Your poetry has to go.... Just having fun...... It doesn't matter what you write Just write....and write....and write.... Enjoy yourself!!!,,,,

Dat stache

I was watching videos of you where you said "my girlfriend" and it's "my wife" in this video. Marriage by subtext 😂

Hi, Clifford. I read Jesus' Son and was blown away by it. Have you ever read any Steven Millhauser? He's amazing: Dangerous Laughter; At the Barnum Museum. Please give 'em a look!

“It is not magical realism but it is realism that feels magical!” Dude: if this is your original line I shall stop quoting Johnson to friends and family & switch over to you 🥰

Can you read in portuguese? I'm Brazilian, and I'd love to send you a copy of my western adventure book. Thanks and congratulations for your amazing work!

Check out the music of: The Eels.

I'm new to these reviews but I have one overiding thought after listening to them. I have never said or written anything as intelligent as our host here. Not once.

It's only now, after watching most of your videos, that I realise it's Clifford Lee and not Clifferly... Kindly consider Clifferly if you ever need a ridiculous female pseudonym

find me on facebook, jack konrad, just wrote this on a bus to nashville to blur with love i want to stroll through the kensington gardens in a sickle colored blazer, with trousers of time, trousers of time, dunk me in pomegranate slime, im drunk on a lonely crime, the silence slanted the moon at my heels, under a sled by blood congealed, only the silence can gargle what i feel, employ my wart as eternity's shield, through the wheel i gather stones, and neon kidnaps what i refute, the sea is the night's parachute, has the sun tricked you into being a thief, has it carved you as morning relief, do you notice the kneeling by the pond, have you seen the ducks placate the swans, fine as lace is your preemptive face, maggots spit rubies at my metaphorical pace, i twist myself into the jaundiced categorical, and of the may shaped flask i cant get enough, for my hand is perfumed by its jaded scruff to blur with love and spleen tiptoes into fluff

The mustache makes you look so mature

Dude, check out Edouard Leve - Suicide. Thank me later

Why’d you move to Austin? I thought you just moved to Detroit? You hiding from the feds Cliff? I need answers! Btw: Stoner was one of the best books I’ve read this year and discovered it from your channel.

@josephmcfadden6513

4 жыл бұрын

Wondered the same thing! Maybe he’s working a heap of non-renewable adjunct English positions at unis. Never the best benefits and have to « shop around » and travel for a better gig.

Never knew he wrote books 🙂