Week Seven - “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” by Denis Johnson

[Elodie Fichet]

What a cool little story! I really did not expect to like it because I am usually not at all interested in drugs story, Trainspotting / Requiem for the Dream type of stories. They really disgust me, but this time I thought Johnson did a very good job and did not make it commonplace. I expected harsh language, something vulgar but instead I found Johnson’s style very simple but poetic.

There are some highlights that I particularly enjoyed in the story: “I knew every raindrop by its name,” I think is awesome and when the husband finds out his wife is dead and the guy answers “No, she’s not.” I thought that was great and very funny – pure dark humor. He has no clue but he has to say something. I feel that the drugs in the story do help create the character but it’s almost secondary. It’s more like, an exacerbated version of the weird human nature.

I keep wanting to know how true/real the story is for some reason, how much non-fiction there is in this story. Does it matter? I don’t think so, but I’m really curious about it, although I think that if it was pure non-fiction, I would hate it, it would be too disturbing to know that it actually happened. However, in a way it reminds of How To Tell a True War Story. It’s true somewhere somehow.

            Also, I absolutely loved “My secret was that in this short while I had gone from being president of this tragedy to being a faceless onlooker at a gory wreck” because it totally different circumstances I often feel like that. I can’t recall an exact occurrence, but I know I already felt that way and the weird emptiness or loss of pride you feel after. It is very interesting and I love the fact that Johnson put it into words. It’s so vivid, it’s so true!

If I had time, I would read the book, just for the sake of reading something that seems funny and that is utterly different from what I usually read.