In 1992 the
New Yorker sent Denis Johnson to Africa to interview Charles Taylor, the self-described president of Liberia. Everything was carefully planned before the trip, but when he arrived, he found the
New Yorker hadn't realized that it is impossible to schedule a trip ? to schedule anything ? in Liberia, let alone an interview with the elusive president. After one particularly frustrating delay, Johnson reviewed the documents that had seemed to ensure everything had been arranged: "Now incomprehensible incantations covered the pages. The words of the messages, the names, the places, even the letterheads pulsed with mystery and a joyous insanity." This is a quintessential Denis Johnson moment. He travels to some indecipherable foreign land ? whether actual or metaphorical ? and reveals its mystery and joyous insanity. Though best known as one of the country's most accomplished writers of poetry and fiction, including the sublime classic
Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson is also a first-rate journalist.
Seek: Reports from the Edges of America and Beyond is his first collection of essays, and a welcome addition indeed to his already impressive body of work. Whether traveling abroad (Africa, the Middle East, the Philippines) or around the country (to a gathering of the Rainbow Family, a Christian bikers' revival, a militia group) Johnson portrays a world that is almost as absurd, gut-wrenching, and hilarious as the one we actually inhabit.