Denis Johnson's is an epic in miniature, one of his most evocative and poignant fictions. It is the story of robert grainier, a day laborer in the American west at the start of the twentieth century---an ordinary man in ...Denis Johnson's is an epic in miniature, one of his most evocative and poignant fictions. It is the story of robert grainier, a day laborer in the American west at the start of the twentieth century---an ordinary man in extraordinary times.