Summer Reading: Already Dead by Denis Johnson

(p.36) Nights are cold but we drive with the top down for the oxygen. The cypresses on the cliffs high over the sea, dragged sideways by the wind over centuries into permanent blurs, whizzes, smears, seem to be part of a comic strip as we, drunk and dangerous scream past in the heartstopping blue twilight. Offshore, the small lights of fishing-boats float in the dark: if you let them they'll start symbolizing everything. I slow way down to light the reefer I've rolled, sucking in the smoke along with the damp clean ocean air. Melissa shakes her head. I jam the pedal.

(p.40-41) We in California show anger and pleasure the same way, by a little California laugh. You need an ear for the difference. And things aren't "good," and things are never "bad" - no, in this lush eternity by the sea we measure our moments by two other words. everything on the spectrum of undesirability, from minor annoyance to univeral tragedy, is okay. Anything better to any degree, all the way up to a colossal lottery jackpot or the return of Jesus - that's neat.