Johnny Future

by Steve Abee

Turning thirty with zero dollars in the bank, no job nor prospects, sipping NyQuil and staring at the Los Angeles sky, at space, at nothing and everything—Johnny Future’s cool with that. He knows he must do something in this life, but he doesn’t know what. His grandmother, the only mother he’s ever known, is stuck in a nursing home somewhere. He hasn’t seen her in years. Inanimate objects, exterminator icons, street signs are all talking to him, telling him he’s got problems. He’s messed up, sure, but he’s gonna do something about it. He’s gonna get deep and go right to it. Self-styled “poem writer” of the L.A. vernacular, lover of all that exists, hopelessly unrepentant—because he doesn’t even know what that means—Johnny Future tells us about his world, his Hollywood, his Los Angeles, his struggle, and our future.

Steve Abee taps the well of broken hope and tattered heroism that sits beneath his nihilistic generation, transforming it into a heartening, hypersexual, punch-drunk tour de force ushering the drug narrative into the new American century.

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

Steve Abee began writing as an orderly at St. John's hospital in Santa Monica. He has previously published three books, King Planet, The Bus: Cosmic Ejaculations of the Daily Mind in Transit, and Great Balls of Flowers.

He is also the author of Johnny Future published by MP Publishing, teaches middle school English and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.

Reviews

[Miranda Marchese · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a hard one to rate, mainly because of the stream-of-consciousness drug-induced Hunter S. Thompson-esque writing style. There's also not much of a plot until the last 50 pages or so. When I'm faced with a novel that's tough for me to rate, I think I should go with answering if the book is a good example of it's genre, and in this case, it is- kind of like a modern-day Naked Lunch or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. As that, it succeeds, but as a piece of literature that everyone can enjoy, it doesn't. I got through it all right, possibly because of its short length, but I wouldn't pick it up again.

[Suhail Rafidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s blithering junkie Johnny Future’s 30th birthday and he’s broker than the ten commandments. He inaugurates the third decade of his life by developing a conscience, which happens when a girl who won’t have sex with him tells the lout to visit his ailing grandmother in the Sun Valley Assisted Living Home. Slogging through a miasma of drug induced inspiration, Mr. Future takes the girl’s advice. He falls in love with a stripper named America, steals a pimp’s car, and breaks his potty-mouthed grandmother out of her nurse infested prison. Steve Abee’s Johnny Future is a gonzo style Los Angeles drug narrative, tinged with evocative glimpses at the ever expanding fringe of American society. Like Crooked Little Vein or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Future suggests that, if the fringe gets any bigger, it’ll consume the center.

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[Matt Falvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Channeling Hunter S. Thompson in the most frightful and delightful ways, Steve Abee's "Johnny Future" is absolutely hyperkinetic. Johnny Future's drug fueled dive into the seediest nooks of southern California as he sets about changing his dormant way of life is a mind warping road trip. Abee's anything goes prose is poetic, haunting, and downright disturbing in the best ways imaginable. A drug and sex fueled Don Quixote for Generation X.

[Julie O'Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where do I begin? My head is still spinning from this book. Johnny Future is a junkie. He's high during this whole book and his thoughts go a million miles a second. It's a very depressing story as we go along with Johnny to get his next fix with his other lowlife druggie pals.

[Tatsie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it was a decent read, it was too disjointed to even keep my attention at times. The main character is pitiable and interesting but he wasn't enough to save the book. There are good passages here and there, though.

[Chiwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

love it. it's going to be remembered as a classic.

[Johnny Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was Hunter S. Thomson-esque but not as cool. Def a little bit hard to read since its from the POV of a junkie but over all I enjoyed it.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was like moving, f'd up poetry. And I mean that in the best possible way. Los Angeles. Man. Crazy world.

[Paul McBride · Rating 3 out of 5]

Junkie book about a junkie written as far the reader could tell by someone who has gotten wasted way too often. Parts of it are really funny, but a bizarre book none the less.

[Asilef · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a junkie's stream of consciousness as he goes on a quest to get high and save his grandma. I loved it. But I can see how it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

[Mark Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shocking but hilarious!

[Richard West]

L.A. hypnotic psycho freeway organism