The Name of the World
Comments: 1
Don’t know why I didn’t mention this sooner, but a few weeks ago I finished reading The Name of the World by Denis Johnson. What a remarkable book. I can only describe it as invisibly well-written.
At first there seems to be no ‘style’ to the writing at all, just smooth sentences from the narrator that come at you like familiar landscape (and to which I paid same half-attention). Almost imperceptibly, however, I became aware of something moving very deeply under the surface but supplying all of the motive force, and shortly after that I began thinking that I’d never read anything quite like this. The way the book begins to get a hold on you perfectly mirrors the transformation of the narrator.
It made me remember learning that clouds can actually weigh many tons; you still see them drifing across the sky as clouds but with an awareness of the tremendous invisible forces that form and move them.
There’s a word coined in the renaissance - sprezzatura - which means the ability to make something very difficult look nonchalantly easy. In The Name of the World Johnson gives one of the finest displays of sprezzatura you’ll find for some time.
by Denis Johnson
HarperCollins, July 2000, 120pp.
ISBN: 0060192488
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Posted to Books • 2002.02.17 (Sun) • 00:59
Comments
Posted by jh 2002.02.19, 13:09
Mike,
You’re just trying to depress me, aren’t you….
-jh
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