Tree of Smoke | 
 enlarge | Author: Denis Johnson
Publisher: FSG
Category: EBooks
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $6.01 (38%)
Rating:  106 reviews
Sales Rank: 6127
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 624
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
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
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.
Book 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 America. That's me." This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Viet Cong—and the disasters that befall him on account of 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 and into a war where 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 101 more reviews...
 Ponderous, pointless bore June 28, 2009
Gary Greenberg
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I see this book is on Amazon's suggested summer reading list, and must warn innocents: don't buy it! Your summer will be gone with nothing to show for it. The story moves slooooowwwwwly and is boring to boot. Do yourself a favor: read a few pages before you buy; you can tell right away. It's only the third book I gave up on (Ship of Fools was first, then Walden). Save yourself.
 Another overrated National Book Award winner June 4, 2009
Curtis R. Barclift (St. Mary's City, MD USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I had so looked forward to reading this book. Several novels concerning Vietnam are among my favorites. James Webb's Fields of Fire, Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato and John M. Delvecchio's The Last Valley are superior works of fiction. I had read D. Johnson's books before and found them neither riveting nor memorable in any way. But with all of the hoopla surrounding its release, I was ready for something special. It started off that way. For the first half of the book, around 300 pages, I liked what I read even though I wasn't working up much interest in the characters, and the book is probably two thirds dialog, and not particularly revealing dialog either. By the time I neared the end I no longer cared about either the story or the characters. I stopped with 30 pages left,with absolutely no curiosity about how it ended because my enthusiasm had departed many, many pages before. Again, the National Book Award had been given to a book that I felt to be thoroughly undeserving, murky, unfocused and oh so ponderous, like an overblown Mahler symphony. Anyone ever tried to read The News From Paraguay by Lili Tuck, another NBA winner? Spare yourself. At least that book was short. This one just went on and on and on, draining every last bit of interest the further on it went. This was no literary Apocalypse Now. But as I neared the end I experienced Apathy Now.
 The Imprint of War June 2, 2009
Ethan Cooper (Big Apple)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Near the end of TREE OF SMOKE, the character Kathy Jones ruminates about her experiences as a nurse and relief worker in the Viet Nam war. "Kathy reflected, certainly not for the first time, that the war hadn't been only and exclusively terrible. It had delivered a sense, at first dreadful, eventually intoxicating, that something wild, magical, stunning might come from the next moment, death itself might erupt..."
Basically, this idea--that Viet Nam, as well as the war on communism, was a thrilling but gruesome misadventure that never made much sense--is the subject of TREE OF SMOKE, as well as the principle that animates its major characters. This means that ToS is probably not for you if you're looking for a character-driven novel that explores personal and moral choice, such as THE QUIET AMERICAN. Instead, the characters in ToS find weird fulfillment in the rush of arbitrary and deadly war. Thereafter, they might try to justify that fulfillment. But it's a tree of smoke.
Readers of ToS will find sections of powerful prose, where Denis Johnson demonstrates that he can place a character perfectly into a scene. Illustrating this ability is the battle near Cao Phuc in 1968, where the character James Houston experiences his first combat. But such set pieces are infrequent, with Johnson, in this long novel, primarily using his prose to convey the strange and deadly elusiveness of Viet Nam and its aftermath. This is why, in my opinion, the poetic quality of Johnson's writing becomes apparent only with Jimmy Storm, a psychological operations soldier who speaks as if amped on drugs. In this crazed perspective, Johnson's prose tightens. Otherwise, this book feels deliberately rough and a little slow, forcing this reader to circle names, dates, locations, and any other fact--as if this were a history--to keep his mind in the narrative.
Johnson is very strong in his final few pages, illuminating his themes and even explaining the behavior of Skip Sands, a major character who was otherwise incomprehensible to me. This strong end helped to part the smoke and earned this novel a fourth star.
A very difficult read May 30, 2009
Sam Santhosh (Pleasanton, CA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I seldom give up on books but I had to abandon this after about 400 pages (yes - it is a long book with about 700 pages!). The author has won many awards and the book had numerous positive reviews that tempted me to buy it. But the heavy symbolism, unconnected characters, slow pace etc makes it very difficult to read. Even after 400 pages, the plot was not clear and the book became very boring.
Though the back of the book carries positive reviews from many well known sources, I would recommend prospective readers to browse through a few of the pages (just the first 2 or 3 will not do) at random and make sure they like this style, before buying it.
A mixed bag.. May 16, 2009
P. Greer (Soddy-Daisy, TN USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The inside of the jacket:
This is the story of William "Skip" Sand, CIA - engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong - and the disasters that befall him. This 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 its vision of human folly, this is a story like nothing in our literature.
First of all, I read this book, sort of the same way I watch The Unit on television. When I watch The Unit, I am usually sitting on the couch, paging through a magazine. When a scene comes on with the wives, I put down my magazine and watch, when the war story comes back on, I pick back up my magazine. Why do I even watch The Unit?? Because I control about 99% of our Tivo watching, my husband's 1% is The Unit and a couple of shows from Spike TV. If he can watch Project Runway, Criminal Minds, Top Chef, Real Housewives of Orange County, and all the other shows that I make him watch, then I can watch The Unit.
So, anyway. I did read this book, all 614 pages of it. I could tell that it was a good book and an interesting book if you like war stories, and covert operations, and things like that. I just kind of paid more attention to the characters and their personalities and less on the covert operations part, and even then it held my interest. So, if you like war based stories, then you would probably really like this!
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