James Sallis' Sarah Jane Pullman

Opinions are like assholes and the puckered outliers who post their brief reviews of books on Goodreads are high comedy.  And so wrong, I have no qualms about holding them up for ridicule. I was curious what others were saying about one of the two best books I have read thus far in 2025.

Angels, by Denis Johnson was excellent.  Sarah Jane by James Sallis (https://tinyurl.com/mwf9hnzs) packed a similar wollop. Both featured female protagonists.

These three one-starred reviews of Sallis’ 2019 207- page novel.

“Only an old white man could get away with this plotless drivel and receive accolades.”

Non-linear narratives are not plotless. The age and gender of the author are about as relevant as the publisher and the artwork on the dust jacket.  You aren’t providing any more insight than judging a book by its cover.

“At no time during the entire story did I get the idea that the main character was female.”

This careful reader got lost after the first sentence. 

“My name is Pretty, but, I’m not. Haven’t been, won’t be. And that’s not really my name, either, just what Daddy calls me. Beauty’s only skin deep, he used to say, so when I was six I scratched my arm open looking for it. Scar’s still there. And I guess it’s like everyone saying if you dig deep enough you’ll find China. All I got from that was blisters.

My real name is Sarah Jane Pullman.  Kids at school call me Squeaky. At church I’m mostly S.J. or (as Daddy’s girl, a real yuck for the old guys in their shiny-butt suits standing by the Sunday School door having a cigarette.” 

I was hooked from the opening paragraphs. I was shocked a few times in this novel.  I can appreciate the introspection into a hardscrabble and chaotic life. Sarah Jane Pullman is real with Sallis’ words. His novel is more introspective than most crime fiction, grittier than most literary fiction.  His books are exhibit-A why genre labels have little utility.  He is one of this moment’s better writers.    

“Oh this was so bad I had to stop...it was a view into someone’s bad dream that was their life with no control exerted to stop the chaos.”

I guess I am not recommending Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Death on the Installment Plan (https://tinyurl.com/ycy84yx4) to this intrepid reader.

I don’t find reviews on sites like Goodreads useful, except in the aggregate.  Sarah Jane was recommended to me with a bunch of superlatives by a friend, a voracious reader with which I share similar tastes.  This book is well-rendered noir. It was awarded the best crime novel by the New York Times in 2019.  The recommendation from my friend Bob means so much more than accolades from critics.  He knows.  And for that, I would love to turn on more people to this excellent book. Paying it forward.