Denis Johnson

Goes to northern Iraq and comes back with a portrait of a sort of burgeoning Palm Springs:

I run into Ward on the elevator at the International Hotel in Erbil, and he asks me if I’d care to join him at the buffet, and what I say is no. Did I fly 7,000 miles from Chicago to talk to a guy from Kansas City?

Americans, he says, are loved in northern Iraq.

     posted 29 February 2008 by Michael Scott Moore

  1. I’ve been wanting to read this piece + been wanting to blog about some sniping at it. Nick Denton (Gawker) takes Johnson to task for not leaving his hotel, implying he didn’t have the guts. Then, a commenter informs Denton that Johnson has in fact been to warzones, ie Liberia, before, so whatevs.

    Also mentioned in that thread is the single pan of Tree of Smoke that I’ve ever read (B.R. Myers in The Atlantic), in which the critic seems to be mainly aggrevated that ToS would get blurbed by Phillip Roth AND Jonathan Franzen. The nerve. Denton and Myers, imho, both come off like jealous ankle-biters.

    — Ben    Feb 29, 01:23 am    #

  2. Kurdistan, Absurdistan…

    — Nicole    Mar 2, 03:09 pm    #