"Johnson writes with a fervor that can only be described as religious.
Seek is scary and beautiful and ecstatic and uncontrolled...he
elevates the mundane to the sublime; he boils things down to their
essence. He's simply one of the few writers around whose sentences make
you shudder." --Adrienne Miller, Esquire
Part political disquisition, part travel journal, part self-exploration,
Seek is a collection of essays and articles in which Denis Johnson
essentially takes on the world. And not an obliging, easygoing world
either; but rather one in which horror and beauty exist in such
proximity that they might well be interchangeable. Where violence and
poverty and moral transgression go unchecked, even unnoticed. A world of
such wild, rocketing energy that, grasping it, anything at all is
possible.
Whether traveling through war-ravaged Liberia, mingling with the crowds
at a Christian Biker rally, exploring his own authority issues through
the lens of this nation's militia groups, or attempting to unearth his
inner resources while mining for gold in the wilds of Alaska, Johnson
writes with a mixture of humility and humorous candor that is everywhere
present.
With the breathtaking and often haunting lyricism for which his work is
renowned, Johnson considers in these pieces our need for transcendence.
And, as readers of his previous work know, Johnson's path to
consecration frequently requires a limning of the darkest abyss. If the
path to knowledge lies in experience, Seek is a fascinating record of
Johnson's profoundly moving pilgrimage.
