The Laughing Monsters in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 26, 2015 Steve rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, i-spy

Very disappointing. The book had possibilities, but it seemed to fall apart (fragment) over the last 75 pages (which is significant given the novel is only 228 pages long). Ever since Tree of Smoke, Johnson has been writing small, genre-like stuff. Nobody Move was a nasty and tight little noir, and the wonderful Train Dreams which is more-than-a-Western. But Train Dreams was just a reprint from 2002. At this point you have to wonder if Johnson is working on something big, or he's just suffering Very disappointing. The book had possibilities, but it seemed to fall apart (fragment) over the last 75 pages (which is significant given the novel is only 228 pages long). Ever since Tree of Smoke, Johnson has been writing small, genre-like stuff. Nobody Move was a nasty and tight little noir, and the wonderful Train Dreams which is more-than-a-Western. But Train Dreams was just a reprint from 2002. At this point you have to wonder if Johnson is working on something big, or he's just suffering writer's block and cleaning out his desk.

The Laughing Monsters seems half-baked. It operates in a fictional zone dominated by John Le Carre and Graham Greene, but never seems achieve the weight of those two fine writers. The main character, John Nair, is the kind of character both Greene and Le Carre regularly employ: a drunk sorta-spy, who seems to lack a core identity, and who possesses a fair amount of self-loathing. This kind of character, in the hands of Greene or Le Carre, usually discover, when put to the test, some sort of honor or sense of Conradian duty that elevates them by novel's end. You can kind of see this with Nair, in his sloppy loyalty to his Ugandan-mercenary friend, Michael Adriko. (Adriko is a wonderful character, and he's the reason I kept reading this book.) But it's hard to get traction with Nair, since he's often drunk or, by novel's end, hallucinating. There is a love interest as well, but that seems tacked on. "Laughing Monsters" does have some interesting, and not too hopeful, commentary on the state of Africa. The people are being poisoned and the land is being raped (along with the women). Armed bands roam the countryside killing and looting. In the best exchange in the book, a U.S. special forces officer (yeah, we're over there), who is interrogating Nair, tells Nair that "[s]ince nine-eleven, chasing myths and fairy tales has turned into a serious business. An industry. A lucrative one." And later in the same interview: "We can do anything."

Unfortunately those nuggets (and a few others) exist within a thin and undeveloped context that leaves you frustrated. This should have been a longer, and better book. Johnson certainly has the ability, but in this case he seemed to have lost interest. ...more

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Jan 07, 2016 Tony rated it it was ok

Shelves: novels, setting-africa

Although this book bears the trappings of a conventional thriller -- a NATO-connected operative travels to Sierra Leone to find an old buddy who may or may not be involved in uranium smuggling -- don't be fooled into thinking there's anything conventional about it. It feels more like Johnson is playing genre games, laying out all kinds of international thriller tropes (secret communications lairs, sexy dame, mysterious Westerners lurking at hotel bars, etc.), only to poke fun at the whole idea o ...more

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Jun 28, 2023 Missyjohnson1 rated it it was ok

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 01, 2017 Kent Winward rated it liked it

The spy mystery of this book was more that it couldn't quite seem to make up its mind about what it wanted to be: international intrigue? social satire? literary novel? some sort of stylistic rumination on international spy-craft?

The ultimate problem was like most spying and intrigue -- we are left with more questions than answers. ...more

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