"When I'm rushing on my run/And I feel just like Jesus' son." -- Lou Reed.

"Herion" was the author's dedication at the beginning of a book. These were the first words of the book that I was assigned to read for an English class. While this struck me as odd, it was also intriguing, and I began to read the best book I've read in a long time, Jesus' Son.

Some required reading may be dull and painful, but this book captivates the reader with short stories that are borderline adventurous -- intoxicated escapades of an underachieving young man who is struggling to sift his way through drugs and lost friends. The plots are wildly unlikely but definitely in step with the main character.

The author, Denis Johnson, had his own experience with substance abuse in his younger years and his twisted work reflects that. All of the characters in Jesus' Son come equipped with their own unique malfunctions or corruption.

Nonetheless, they seem to blend with each other flawlessly, mostly because they flee in and out of stories ephemerally, giving the audience the impression that either the narrator carefully chose the stories he wished to tell or told them as they came to him. It's hard to say.

But if you expect a story about the trials and tribulations of a substance addict and how he gets clean, this book isn't for you.

The stories are crazy, and each is distinctly different, which is much of why they were appealing to me. It isn't your usual happy ending, another appealing aspect of the book.

The main character in the book is referred to only as "F--- head," when he is called anything at all. The stories are unrelated and are more comparable to highlights of life, or lowlights for that matter -- certain unfavorable situations that the main character found himself in over the years.

However, between the mass amounts of unsavory behavior, there is a distinct knack for detail and description by the author, one that puts the reader in whatever situation the character might currently be in.

Also, Jesus' Son boasts philosophical flair. It may not always be outwardly apparent, but there are threads of almost existential thought woven through each story, if not in verse, then definitely in the theory of the plots.

Johnson has a unique writing style, simple and sleek, but it also seems to be methodical, and every word is crucially planned.

In "Beverly Home," the last story in Jesus' Son, the narrator explains his strange desire to remain unconnected to women and how he preferred to have sex with the television playing in the background.

"I was afraid to make love to her without the conversations and laughter from the false universe playing in our ears, because I didn't want to get to know her very well, and didn't want to be bridging any silences with our eyes," Johnson writes.

Phrases like this litter the book, forcing the reader both to empathize with the main character and to wonder what exactly his deal is.