"Nobody Move", Denis Johnson: Easy Does It?

This is one of Denis Johnson's newest novels, being published in 2009. Johnson's one of my favorite authors, and a guy I try to emulate.

I bought it at the Barnes and Nobles across the way from the Union Square one Wednesday afternoon working for the dairy company.

It seemed like a pair of my authors were publishing books at the same time that were in the same vein. This entry from Johnson, and Inherent Vice from Pynchon, were those specific writers' feelings on genre fiction. Inherent Vice is Pynchon's play at detective novel, and this tiny tome is Johnson playing with a quick pulp crime novel.

This is a quick read. And by "quick", I mean it's like cotton candy and can be sped through in a long afternoon if you so desired. I liked it, but it didn't make me think of Denis Johnson inherently. It was generic for all I could tell.

Inherent Vice, which will be here someday, was at least noticeably Pynchon's work.

The title of this book comes from a line from a song that comes in over the radio during an early scene: "Nobody move--nobody get's hurt." The novel claims it comes from a reggae song, but I know it from somewhere else, an Eazy E song from the album "Eazy Duz It".