Roderick's review
Tree of Smoke: A Novel
by Denis Johnson
** spoiler alert **
-
re: "was the double really relaying the possibility of a nuclear strike to the north?"
Indeed he was. The scene begins on page 332, and that Operation Tree of smoke involves a fiction regards nukes is first mentioned on page 342:
"...Suppose in the embassy bombing last year some papers got loose in the wind. A transcript, say--minutes of a meeting of a few old pirates who think they've got a nuclear weapon they can divert. These horrible folks want to smuggle it into Hanoi and put a stop to the nonsense..."
After which they proceed to hone some details. I can't remember if it was specifically mentioned again, though; there's quite a bit of information coming at you from all sides, and some of it inevitably gets buried.
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re: "I hope some appropriately-equipped intellectuals will do it justice in years to come."
Right there with ya.
Roderick's review
Tree of Smoke: A Novel by Denis Johnson
Roderick's review
rating:
** spoiler alert **
This book makes me want to be a novelist at the same time that it makes me realise (again) how very hard it is to pull off. Denis Johnson manages to be psychologically concise and lyrical over and over again, which strikes me as incredibly difficult. How many different people can one person manage to be subtle and perceptive about at the same time? A lot, apparently, if you know what you're doing. Unlike, say, Ian McEwan. Just saying.
I'm having quite a hard time keeping up with a succession of characters who seem vaguely familiar from an earlier part of the novel, so I'm tracking back a lot, but that also makes me recognise how very skilful Johnson is.
In a strange way this novel is reminding me of Shirley Hazzard's Great Fire, even though they're very different in many ways. There's something about the intensity and the indirection of both books that makes them seem similar. Perhaps they're two sides of the same coin: novels about war faraway and long ago with an emoti...more
I'm having quite a hard time keeping up with a succession of characters who seem vaguely familiar from an earlier part of the novel, so I'm tracking back a lot, but that also makes me recognise how very skilful Johnson is.
In a strange way this novel is reminding me of Shirley Hazzard's Great Fire, even though they're very different in many ways. There's something about the intensity and the indirection of both books that makes them seem similar. Perhaps they're two sides of the same coin: novels about war faraway and long ago with an emoti...more
** spoiler alert ** -
re: "was the double really relaying the possibility of a nuclear strike to the north?"
Indeed he was. The scene begins on page 332, and that Operation Tree of smoke involves a fiction regards nukes is first mentioned on page 342:
"...Suppose in the embassy bombing last year some papers got loose in the wind. A transcript, say--minutes of a meeting of a few old pirates who think they've got a nuclear weapon they can divert. These horrible folks want to smuggle it into Hanoi and put a stop to the nonsense..."
After which they proceed to hone some details. I can't remember if it was specifically mentioned again, though; there's quite a bit of information coming at you from all sides, and some of it inevitably gets buried.
-
re: "I hope some appropriately-equipped intellectuals will do it justice in years to come."
Right there with ya.