Jesus' Son: Stories Denis Johnson
Publisher: Harper Perennial

Mine is that I'm not a big fan of short stories. The parable of the prodigal son is one of the most well-known stories of Jesus. It is more commonly referred to as the story of the prodigal son, though the word prodigal is not found in Scripture. For whatever reason, despite others reading it and recommending it highly, I avoided it. Jesus' Son, a short story collection from Denis Johnson, is tiny. Joe—is that why Junkie Love is a true story—because you could never capture the real thing in fiction? I have had Johnson's story collection (connected story collection, that is) Jesus' Son (1992) on my shelf for a long time. I believe that alot of this series was written in a way that some people can understand it better. I'll be honest: I don't really like Denis Johnson. I only saw the movie of Jesus' Son. The misfits and sinners that populate his stories are lost, sometimes physically, but most often emotionally. From JESUS' SON: STORIES, Harper Perennial, 1993. Source of the story that Jesus took Peter, James, and John and went up on a high mountain, and was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and met with Moses and Elijah and was heard a voice coming out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved son, in whom Mat 17:5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Jesus' Son is a visionary chronicle of dreamers, addicts, and lost souls. Starring Billy Crudup, Samantha Morton, 1999. As I have mentioned before we are a homeschool family but as part of our children's education we do have them is different classes to enhance their learning. Johnson is probably best known for his National Book Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize-finalist novel Tree of Smoke, but his highly acclaimed Jesus' Son continues to be influential to this day. Though it's a quarter of the thickness of his sprawling Vietnam novel Tree of Smoke, it still packs just as much punch. Denis Johnson changed my mind with this, now one of my all-time favorite books, and showed how to braid narrative and use the lyric register (poetic language).