false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1221586313m/271074.jpg 271074 14 <b> 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.</b> 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. 3279686 4 9 2007 Tree of Smoke: A Novel total:1860|5:441|4:644|3:462|2:214|1:99| 1860 6694 4032 574 5 14 false false Fri Mar 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 04 14:13:30 -0700 2007 Fri Mar 28 18:39:02 -0700 2008
What I'm really delighting in right now, however, is how thoroughly unqualified B.R. Myers proved hims...more...]]> 4 15 false false Sun May 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 07 10:13:19 -0700 2008 Sun May 11 20:05:34 -0700 2008 Tree of Smoke on the shelf, I happily checked it out and couldn't wait to get it home and start reading it. I am a fan of Denis Johnson's work, and this was his first novel in about nine ...more...]]> 4 5 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 14:25:00 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 15:14:45 -0800 2007
So before anything else, a little history lesson...

From the mid-1800s until World War II, the Asia...more...]]> 3 4 false false Tue Feb 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 16 09:19:47 -0700 2008 Tue Feb 24 21:04:07 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 3 false false Sat Nov 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 17 21:21:48 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 22 07:36:38 -0800 2008 1 long journey more...]]> 4 4 false false Tue Feb 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 08 13:50:23 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 19:46:57 -0800 2008 Tree of Smoke is something like a good, plot-driven thriller (like LeCarré more than Clancy) injected with a heady dose of fog of war. It's a novel that looks at the Vietnam War through a wonderfully tuned eye for the humane, a critical piece that has no truck with the cliché activisms we're used...more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun Oct 14 15:26:43 -0700 2007 Sat Feb 21 04:54:51 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 3 false false Tue Jun 17 23:40:01 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 17 23:40:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false true Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 07 12:41:09 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 08:24:10 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue Aug 28 09:05:42 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 08 09:44:49 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 25 13:59:31 -0700 2007
It ain't all that.

There are big problems with some redundant characters and both flat writing and listless plotting in the opening chapters. Then it gets good. Then the last section k...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Feb 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 23 20:42:25 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 04 20:48:12 -0800 2009 1 more...]]> 2 1 false false Sun Dec 07 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 18:32:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 09:14:44 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Jan 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Sep 07 07:48:46 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 02 14:38:50 -0800 2009
I prefer non-fiction...

Tree of Smoke, like Franzen’s The Corrections, was a Target impulse purchase because it won the National Book Award.

Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke won the National Book Award due to the fact that Johnson is, supposedly, a...more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Jul 29 00:40:23 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 01:17:21 -0700 2008
That said.

Everyt...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 29 16:47:06 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 10:28:13 -0700 2008 Denis Johnson paints unfiltered portraits of a general, a corporal, a...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Feb 22 16:05:31 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 22 16:42:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Feb 14 12:14:17 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 10:34:23 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 13:47:22 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 03 15:41:00 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jan 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 22 09:09:50 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 31 07:05:38 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Dec 09 19:51:33 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 09 20:00:52 -0800 2007
This isn't any different. It's still great in a way, but for someone with an im...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=271074