"The raw power of poetically concentrated passion . . . [Soul of a Whore] is a resonant fulfillment of the promise in [Johnson's] earlier work . . . [This is] Johnson's best constructed and most evocatively passionate outing yet." –Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
"Johnson has found a new speed, or a new style, for his age-old theme of hell, and it's a good, rare thing to watch a modern poet write so well for the stage." –Michael Scott Moore, SF Weekly
"Soul of a Whore and Purvis: Two Plays in Verse comprises Johnson's third- and fifth-ever attempts at playwriting, but his enthusiasm for experimentation is present and overriding, and it reads vividly." –Jillian Goodman, Slate
"These plays are everything you'd expect and want from a dramatic creation written by Denis Johnson–grit, poetry, passionate prose, a host of devilishly dirty characters steeped in backbreaking honesty, and a whirlwind ride that takes us to the polar reaches of the human experience." –Emily Temple, Flavorwire
"'Soul' inhabits a world of hookers and hoodlums and murderers and executioners. The tale is both hallucinatory and immediate, hilarious and horrifying. It moves from the god-forsaken way station to a hospital ward to an execution chamber, where one Bess Cassandra is awaiting her death for 'vehicular infanticide." –Patti Hartigan, The Boston Globe