SOURCE: Reynolds, Susan Salter. “Discoveries.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (25 June 2000): 11.

In the following review, Reynolds differentiates The Name of the World from the rest of Johnson's oeuvre.

Maybe you're already a member of the cult of Denis Johnson, joined when you first read Jesus' Son (coming this month to theaters near you). Then, perhaps, you were grateful when he wrote Already Dead, the funny but not ridiculous portrait of hippies in Northern California. It was so much fun to read. But more important even than fun is that Johnson, in his fiction, makes you nostalgic for something in yourself, some lost country in your soul that you have almost forgotten. Usually, he has the decency to cover up this invasion of your privacy with humor.

But this book is different. The Name of the World reinvents everything, even good manners. The flap copy promises funny, but that's...