What is the author's style in Jesus' Son: Stories by Denis Johnson?

Each of the stories is recounted in the first person, past tense point of view - in other words, as though the narrator had the experiences he's describing and, in a turn of phrase that seems particularly relevant to this collection, has lived to tell the tale(s). This, as suggested at a couple of points in the collection, is a particularly important aspect of his experience - he has survived. This is perhaps a reason why the narrator (author?) feels that it's important for these stories to be told - as a cautionary tale about the dangers of drug use/addiction, and the alternatively positive side of the coin, of compassion and connection as a means of surviving not only addiction, but life in general.

For the most part, both the collection and the stories within that collection initially come across as lacking in any kind of traditional, linear structure. As discussed in the analysis for Stories 10 and 11 ("Steady Hands ..." and "Beverly Hotel"), there is a sense that by this point in the collection, and indeed his life, the narrator has reached a place of achievement in his journey towards health and freedom from addiction - a place that in a traditionally structured work might be described as climactic.

The point must be made, however, that there is little or no sense of overall narrative structure threading through the preceding narratives to create a sense of steady advancement - there are no clearly defined steps along the aforementioned journey, no so-called "plot" sending the narrative inevitably from one event to another. Instead, the overall effect of the collection, and of the individual stories within that collection, is cumulative.