Chris's review
Tree of Smoke: A Novel
by Denis Johnson
Chris's review
Tree of Smoke: A Novel by Denis Johnson
Chris's review
rating:
Denis Johnson's NBA-winning novel reminded me of another major cultural event from last year -- Todd Haynes' Dylan biopic/mindfuck I'm Not There. Both are set mostly in the sixties, and both say less about the decade itself than about the sheen of fantasy that the subsequent years have applied to it. Both attempt, with the highest artistic intentions, to breath life into a tired form -- the Vietnam novel; the rock n roll biopic. Both contain a series of exquisite, even impeccable, gestures, punctuated by moments of frankly embarrassing silliness.
It's tough to remember a recent book as inconsistent as Tree of Smoke. For hundreds of pages at a time, the writing is as fine as anything Johnson has done (and he is among the finest writers we have). Then the book inexplicably descends into an undergrad mockery of early DeLillo or recycles old war-movie tropes. (I've heard Laura Miller and others argue for the artistic import of this latter tendency, but a cliche is still a cliche, ...more
It's tough to remember a recent book as inconsistent as Tree of Smoke. For hundreds of pages at a time, the writing is as fine as anything Johnson has done (and he is among the finest writers we have). Then the book inexplicably descends into an undergrad mockery of early DeLillo or recycles old war-movie tropes. (I've heard Laura Miller and others argue for the artistic import of this latter tendency, but a cliche is still a cliche, ...more
