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List Price: $27.00Amazon.com's Price: $17.82 You Save: $9.18 (34%)Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780374279127
ISBN: 0374279128
Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 624
Publication Date: September 04, 2007
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: September 04, 2007
Sales Rank: 72892
Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me.
This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature.
Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date.
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
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
Having written a novel about the Vietnam War and read every fictional account of the tragedy, I picked up Tree of Smoke with great anticipation. It had garnered praise from the reviewers and been nominated for awards. I was greatly disappointed, but somewhat entertained. There is no comparison with Tree of Smoke to The Things They Carried or a dozen other Vietnam War works. Tree of Smnoke is much too much in its length, bloated prose, and too little in the soul of those who fought this misguided ... Read More
Rating:  -
I've read hundreds of novels and I have never been moved to write a review one way or the other, but purchasing and attempting to read "Tree of Smoke" changed that. Of all of the books I've read I can't think of any one of them that I put down and couldn't finish - but that's exactly what I did with this book. I can appreciate that Mr. Johnson's writing is unique and sometimes very good - but a novel is supposed to be more than stringing together well crafted sentences and seemingly unrelated thoughts ... Read More
Rating:  -
The writer Chaim Potok said once in an lecture I heard him give that a librarian had told him, when he, as a youngster, was checking out a book by Evelyn Waugh-- whom he thought was a woman-- that one should always give a book he didn't like 100 pages before quitting reading if the writer was a respected author. I thought of Mr. Potok's advice many times while reading TREE OF SMOKE-- all 614 pages-- although I soldiered on, hoping against hope that it would get better. Winner of the National Book Award for ... Read More
Rating: -
Really? National Book Award? Really? Although Johnson has captivating scene followed by captivating scene, the book as a whole is bloated and over-written. I kept waiting for the corner to be turned and for there to be a tremendous payoff, but I finally ran out of steam and did something I rarely do. I gave up after 500 pages. With slightly more than 100 pages to go, I simply lost my will to care. Johnson is attempting to put together a mosaic. He goes about it in the right way -- he selects beautiful ... Read More
Rating: -
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 ... Read More
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