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Tree of Smoke: A Novelby Denis Johnson |
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Winner of the National Book Award
One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year
Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Amazon.com, Salon, Slate, The National Book Critics Circle, The Christian Science Monitor. . . .
Tree of Smoke is the story of William "Skip" Sands, CIA--engaged in Pschological Operations against the Vietcong--and the disasters that befall him. It is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert and into a war where the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In the words of Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times, Tree of Smoke is "bound to become one of the classic works of literature produced by that tragic and uncannily familiar war."
From Amazon.com Review:
Amazon Significant Seven, September 2007: Denis Johnson is one of those few great hopes of American writing, fully capable of pulling out a ground-changing masterpiece, as he did in 1992 with the now-legendary collection, Jesus' Son. Tree of Smoke showed every sign of being his "big book": 600+ pages, years in the making, with a grand subject (the Vietnam War). And in the reading it lives up to every promise. It's crowded with the desperate people, always short of salvation, who are Johnson's specialty, but despite every temptation of the Vietnam dreamscape it is relentlessly sober in its attention to on-the-ground details and the gradations of psychology. Not one of its 614 pages lacks a sentence or an observation that could set you back on your heels. This is the book Johnson fans have been waiting for--along with everybody else, whether they knew it or not. --Tom Nissley
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Long, tedious, sad, angry and confusing. It was awful! -  |
Tree of Smoke: A Novel Review |
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I can't resist novels about Vietnam. And this 1997 book had absolutely rave reviews. It even won the National Book Award. Reviewers called it a masterpiece. I just HAD to read it. Now, 702 pages later, I'm sorry I did. This book was just plain awful. And the only satisfaction I got out of slogging through this long and tedious read is to be able to review it and say, "well - I tried".
The book starts in 1963 and spans about 20 years. During this time we see various characters go through their sad lives. There's Skip who is a CIA agent. There's his uncle who's a colonel, a war hero who's something like the part Marlon Brando played in Apocalypse Now. There are two Vietnamese men, one from the north and one from the south, who become part of the covert operations. There are two young brothers in the American army who just can't make it in the outside world. There's a Canadian nurse who provides a bit of romance for Skip. There are other characters too, all of them sad and angry. That's actually the theme of the book - sad and angry. The most characteristic thing about the book though is that it is confusing. I found it impossible to follow the plot. And all the characters seemed to blend together and I kept mixing up who was who. There are no bad guys and no good guys either. Everyone here is a loser. Reading this book is a downer. I hated it. Despite the rave reviews of the critics I cannot recommend this book at all. If you attempt to read it, don't say I didn't warn you. |
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Bloated - |
Tree of Smoke: A Novel Review |
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What a long-winded novel that has been falsely praised. These character are flat, poorly written, and offer no degree of complexity. I would hope this is not America's finest writer for we are in big trouble if it is. If you want a novel that reveals the complicated world of Vietnam, read The Things They Carried. |
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"War and Peace" for the United States -  |
Tree of Smoke: A Novel Review |
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Judging from the distribution of reviews, most people either love "Tree of Smoke" or hate it. I loved it. In fact, it's the best contemporary novel I've read in years.
Like "War and Peace," "Tree of Smoke" examines both the universals of human life and a war that transformed the nations involved. TOS sweeps over 20 years -- covering the war from 1963 to '70, with a denouement in 1983 -- and shows us the experience through the lives of CIA agents, enlisted men, Western humanitarians, and South Vietnamese. One of its themes is America's confusion in Southeast Asia, but saying so really does injustice to Johnson's accomplishment. TOS is moving and disturbing as only the best literature can be. |
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Not A Vietnam Novel -  |
Tree of Smoke: A Novel Review |
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I picked up this novel because I thought it was about Vietnam. As it turns out, it was this author's fantasy of his presumption of Vietnam. I also thought he had been to Vietnam, and it turns out that he was not. Aside from some obvious errors (he names F-16 aircraft which did not exist), this is a pretentious acid trip novel. To be sure, there are moments of odd, almost mystical writing, but they are well buried in page after page of the dense quagmire of this author's mind.
As a bit of fantasy nonsense, this is adequate, but it is hardly any definitive story about the Vietnam war. I noticed it was lauded by major critics, who knowing nothing about Vietnam, jumped aboard this yellow submarine with Johnson and presumed they were being taken for a truth ride. As a weird fantasy trip, this novel is an interesting time-waster. As anything serious, its a waste of time. |
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A Bright and Shining Truth - |
Tree of Smoke: A Novel Review |
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I've been a fan of Johnson for some time now. To me Johnson is the American Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Tree of Smoke struck me as quite a bit better than his earlier books (those that I read anyway.) Johnson has always attempted to inject philosophical and religious points into his narratives and in his past works it was done rather awkwardly and unrealistically (e.g., the hit-man quoting Nietzsche in Already Dead.) But in Tree of Smoke he gets it right, the characters spiritual and philosophical underpinnings are woven seamlessly into the plot and make for an incredibly rich experience. The multitude of characters from very diverse backgrounds provide a wealth of different perspectives on life and faith. I especially appreciated that some of the main characters were Vietnamese. (I find that most American's are so self absorbed they can talk about the Vietnam War for hours and never mention the Vietnamese.)
Also, I have to mention that the softcover edition's binding is fantastic. I was easily able to hold the book splayed open with one hand. |
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