Seek

“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.

This unflinching journey to the fringes of society finds Johnson:

• War Correspondence: A harrowing, first-hand account from the front lines of Liberia’s civil war and the chaos of Somalia, reporting on child soldiers and warlords like Charles Taylor.
• Essays on Extremism: Immersive reports from inside a Christian Biker rally and the heart of America’s militia movement, exploring faith and authority on the fringes.
• Alaskan Wilderness: A treacherous trip into the Bonanza Hills to mine for gold, an absurd honeymoon that tests the limits of survival and friendship.
• Literary Journalism: A look at the hallucinatory hope of a Rainbow Gathering, where Johnson’s signature prose finds transcendence by staring into the darkest abyss.