[YEH]⇒ PDF Tree of Smoke A Novel Denis Johnson Books

Tree of Smoke A Novel Denis Johnson Books

Download As PDF : Tree of Smoke A Novel Denis Johnson Books

Tree of Smoke A Novel Denis Johnson Books

This novel is part of my ongoing effort to upgrade my reading list, having won a National Book Award in 2008. I found it to be generally very well written and captivating, but suffering from periods of dense prose and underediting.

I must say that the review profile is one of the most unusual I've ever seen, an almost reverse bell curve. Readers either love it or hate it, which is somewhat surprising, because I really found it relatively easy to read and can't imagine what would compel anyone to give it a one or two star rating.

In any event, the novel centers on the Vietnam War, however very little actual fighting is mentioned. Instead, intrigue by the CIA and various other intelligence agencies provide the basis for the story, which follows several disparate plot lines, some of which never seem to intersect.

I've seen references to Apocalypse Now and the novel is deeply influenced by the character of Colonel Francis X. Sands, an old line CIA operative who has gone renegade and surrounded himself with accolytes to do his bidding. To these accolytes, Sands is a demi-god, much in the mold of Colonel Kurtz. Sands's nephew, Skip, is the primary character in the story. His interaction with the various other characters and the establishment's efforts to reign in "the Colonel" are what tie the novel together.

At 614 pages of small typed, full pages, this is a relatively long book, at times in need of editing, in my opinion. There are a couple of story lines that don't seem to go anywhere, primarily those of Kathy Jones (I guess every book needs a love interest) and the brothers from Arizona, that while very entertaining don't seem to have any relevance to the story other than to interject the ugly, seedy world of the front line grunt.

I've got to think that there is an outstanding 500 page novel somewhere in this book, but the periods of pretentious, dense prose (thankfully few and far between) and the filler material drags it down below the highest standard. A very worthwhile read nonetheless.


Tags : Amazon.com: Tree of Smoke: A Novel (9780374279127): Denis Johnson: Books,Denis Johnson,Tree of Smoke: A Novel,Farrar, Straus and Giroux,0374279128,Historical - General,Vietnam War, 1961-1975;Fiction.,AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION,Espionage,FICTION Historical General,FICTION War & Military,Fiction,Fiction - Espionage Thriller,Fiction Literary,Fiction-War & Military,GENERAL,General Adult,United States,Vietnam,Vietnam War, 1961-1975,War & Military

Tree of Smoke A Novel Denis Johnson Books Reviews

I don't feel this is a book about the Vietnam war as much as it is a book about disillusionment. There's very little redemption to be found for any of these characters but that does not keep most of them from flailing forward. As a tale of that generation, the 1960s, I found it, engaging and deeply saddening, where the traitors prosper and the true believers are destroyed on the bedrock of their beliefs.ultimately I think it's like about survival at any cost. And also about those who choose not to survive in a world that I can't believe it.
After reading so many positive reviews singing the praises of this novel, I was disappointed when I read it myself. It is at once a deliberate anti-war tract and an anti-military rant based on a revisionist view of the war and the politics of that time, 1963-1975, during which the Vietnam experience was inflicted on the American psyche.

Generally speaking, the author succeeds in writing a 700 page rambler set primarily in Southeast Asia. One could argue the dialogue often reveals little of the story and often seems to degrade the characters involved. A plotline emerges slowly from all the narrative but only late in the novel.

The author does make a few salient points about war in general. Perhaps the most meaningful is that most of the people of South Vietnam did not choose this war but were trapped in its reality. Many of the foreign military chose warfare as their line of work, even though many Americans in the war also had no choice but to endure the experience.

The first scene sets the tone of the novel and, through its misunderstanding of events, creates an invalid situation that defines the author’s point of view and his social goal. The scene introduces Seaman William Houston and other members of the military, especially the Americans, as unthinking, uncaring people who are too ignorant to select a more politically acceptable career path than military service. It includes an artificial incident set in the Philippines in which the unthinking, ignorant seaman hunts for wild boar with a .22 caliber rifle. He shoots a wild monkey in the back while thinking of absolutely nothing. He then picks up the dying animal and watches it die.

This unlikely scene, with its bias and invalid assumptions, undermines the credibility of the story and sets the tone for the book. It shows the author’s lack of research in several areas. First of all, no one would hunt for wild boar using a .22 rifle; it has no stopping power. Second, most wild animals lay up during the heat of the day in the tropics. A trained sailor would not have his finger on the trigger until he was deliberately ready to shoot and kill. He would not have a blank mind while watching the monkey that he is about to shoot. A wild animal, once shot, would go on the defensive immediately and hide, not sit out in the open where it is vulnerable. Finally, a wounded monkey would spend its last breathe biting a human who tried to pick it up.

The net result is that the scene and character do not ring true. The author is clearly writing about something with which he has no experience. Only someone who has never hunted, fired a weapon, or who has never talked to someone who does hunt, would create or believe this event could possibly be true. Its fallacious assumptions and incorrect behaviors cause it to fail, as do many other events and scenes described throughout the book.
I tried to read this book and gave up, then read Johnson's, "Train Dreams," and was made a believer, so I tried to read, "Tree of Smoke" again. And again. And again.... this was my 4th (?) and last attempt at it. It is a story about boring people doing very little in exotic settings. Johnson needs to quit showing off his skills and settle down and tell a good story. It is vague, and has characters do nothing--but you need to remember them when he switches across an ocean or several continents and leaves these characters for more boredom, for he will come back to them and they are almost like strangers that you are expected to know and understand. I found myself searching back through the book to countless characters doing nothing to try to make connections to the mundane. Great skills, boring story.
This novel is part of my ongoing effort to upgrade my reading list, having won a National Book Award in 2008. I found it to be generally very well written and captivating, but suffering from periods of dense prose and underediting.

I must say that the review profile is one of the most unusual I've ever seen, an almost reverse bell curve. Readers either love it or hate it, which is somewhat surprising, because I really found it relatively easy to read and can't imagine what would compel anyone to give it a one or two star rating.

In any event, the novel centers on the Vietnam War, however very little actual fighting is mentioned. Instead, intrigue by the CIA and various other intelligence agencies provide the basis for the story, which follows several disparate plot lines, some of which never seem to intersect.

I've seen references to Apocalypse Now and the novel is deeply influenced by the character of Colonel Francis X. Sands, an old line CIA operative who has gone renegade and surrounded himself with accolytes to do his bidding. To these accolytes, Sands is a demi-god, much in the mold of Colonel Kurtz. Sands's nephew, Skip, is the primary character in the story. His interaction with the various other characters and the establishment's efforts to reign in "the Colonel" are what tie the novel together.

At 614 pages of small typed, full pages, this is a relatively long book, at times in need of editing, in my opinion. There are a couple of story lines that don't seem to go anywhere, primarily those of Kathy Jones (I guess every book needs a love interest) and the brothers from Arizona, that while very entertaining don't seem to have any relevance to the story other than to interject the ugly, seedy world of the front line grunt.

I've got to think that there is an outstanding 500 page novel somewhere in this book, but the periods of pretentious, dense prose (thankfully few and far between) and the filler material drags it down below the highest standard. A very worthwhile read nonetheless.