Synopses & Reviews
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. Thats me.This is the story of Skip Sandsspy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcongand 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 Johnsons first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date.
Denis Johnson is the author of five novels, a collection of poetry and one book of reportage. He is the recipient of a Lannan Fellowship and a Whiting Writers Award, among many other honors for his work. He lives in northern Idaho.
A Pulitzer Prize FinalistA New York Times Notable Book of the YearA Time Magazine Top 10 of the YearA Boston Globe Best Book of the YearA Washington Post Top 10 Book of the YearA San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the YearA Chicago Tribune Favorite Book of the YearA Seattle Times Favorite Book of the YearA Library Journal Best Book of the Year This is the story of Skip Sandsspy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcongand 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. Also available on CD as an unabridged audiobook. Please email
[email protected] for more information. "Denis Johnson is a true American artist, and
Tree of Smoke is a tremendous book, a strange entertainment, very long but very fast, a great whirly ride that starts out sad and gets sadder and sadder, loops unpredictably out and around, and then lurches down so suddenly at the very end that it will make your stomach flop . . .
Tree of Smoke is a soulful book, even a numinous one . . . and it ought to secure Johnson's status as a revelator for this still new century."
Jim Lewis, New York Times "Denis Johnson's wildly ambitious new novel,
Tree of Smoke, reads like a whacked-out, hallucinogenic variation on such whacked-out, hallucinogenic Vietnam classics as Francis Ford Coppola's
Apocalypse Now, Michael Herr's
Dispatches, Robert Stone's
Dog Soldiers and Stephen Wright's
Meditations in Green. It features a central character who comes to see himself as a combination of the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and another who comes across as a latter-day version of Kurtz in Conrad's
Heart of Darkness. What's amazing is that Mr. Johnson somehow manages to take these derivative elements and turn them into something highly originaland potent . . . it's a powerful story about the American experience in Vietnam, with unsettling echoes of the current American experience in Iraq. It is a story about bad intelligence and military screw-ups and people who have lost their way, a story like so many of Mr. Johnson's earlier novels, about Americans in purgatory, waiting impatiently, even expectantly, for the coming apocalypse . . . Mr. Johnson not only succeeds in conjuring the anomalous, hallucinatory aura of the Vietnam War as authoritatively as Stephen Wright or Francis Ford Coppola, but he also shows its fallout on his characters with harrowing emotional precision . . . [A] deeply resonant novel that is bound to become one of the classic works of literature produced by that tragic and uncannily familiar war.”
Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times"Good morning and please listen to me: Denis Johnson is a true American artist, and Tree of Smoke is a tremendous book, a strange entertainment, very long but very fast, a great whirly ride that starts out sad and gets sadder and sadder, loops unpredictably out and around, and then lurches down so suddenly at the very end that it will make your stomach flop . . . Tree of Smoke is a soulful book, even a numinous one . . . and it ought to secure Johnson's status as a revelator for this still new century . . . I spent a long time reading Tree of Smoke, and as I neared the end I found myself wishing it were longer."Jim Lewis, The New York Times
“Tree of Smoke is an ambitious, long, dense, daunting novel sited at the heart of a great American evil, the Vietnam War . . . Like the war itself, Tree of Smoke delivers an intense experience of loss, shame, futility, confusion . . . Denis Johnson is a formidable prose writer, and his book is composed in a plain, straightforward, efficient style. Understatement rules The physical experiences of daily life in tropical Asia is kept fresh, page to page. The dialogue is convincing, neatly adapted to the particularities of the widely different characters. The moments of black comedy that can emerge even amid the worst miseries of war are deftly captured . . . Tree of Smoke joins the corporals guard of truly significant novels about the Vietnam Warworks such as The Quiet American, Going After Cacciato, Dog Soldiers, The Things They Carried, Meditations in Green . . . Denis Johnson has created an absorbing, provocative work of art.”Norman Rush, The New York Review of Books
"For a reader with stamina, the rewards come steadily. Johnson is a fine stylist of the world of soulful disaster. The phrase 'tree of smoke,' as he presents it, is the literal translation from the Hebrew of the pillar in Exodus. This timein these pagesthat pillar of smoke leaves us to a dark, dark vision of a promised land."Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered “To write a fat novel about Vietnam nearly 35 years after it ended is an act of literary bravado. To do so as brilliantly as Denis Johnson has in Tree of Smoke is positively a miracle . . . This novel makes large demands on the reader: to submit to its length, to its disorienting language and structure, to the elusive and shattering experience of its characters, and finally to its sheer ambition to be definitive for the Vietnam generation. It is a presumptuous book, in other words, a
Review
"What's amazing is that Mr. Johnson somehow manages to take these derivative elements and turn them into something highly original and potent....[A] flawed but deeply resonant novel that is bound to become one of the classic works of literature produced by that tragic and uncannily familiar war." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
"Tree of Smoke, Johnson's sixth novel and his first in almost a decade, is his best to date. It's ambitious and perfectly executed, a vivid and continuous dream, and nothing short of a masterpiece." Minneapolis Star Tribune
Review
"[A] tremendous book, a strange entertainment, very long but very fast, a great whirly ride....Tree of Smoke is a massive thing and something like a masterpiece; it's the product of an extraordinary writer in full stride." Jim Lewis, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Ugly and fascinating, with many shattering scenes, this long work may seem familiar to fans of Apocalypse Now but is nevertheless gripping." Library Journal
Review
"An amazingly talented writer....We can hear Twain in his biting irony, Whitman in his erotic excess, not a little of Dashiell Hammett too in the hard sentences he throws back at his gouged, wounded world." Vince Passaro, Newsday
Review
"The fierce, lucid detachment of Tree of Smoke would make Soren Kierkegaard proud. Johnson, a poet and novelist who lives in northern Idaho, has written the best work of his career, an existential tour de force." Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review
"Long, rich, dazzling, Tree of Smoke should finally establish [Johnson] among the most profound and truly humane American novelists extant....Tree of Smoke is a great read, an amazing achievement." San Diego Union-Tribune
Review
"[T]he writing is always beautiful. Still...mostly what we get here is a sense of being on the outside, which in Johnson's universe, anyway has never been enough." The Los Angeles Times
Review
"[A] big book, a story that works in the best ways a big book can a multipronged tale, told in a straight-ahead chapter-by-chapter chronology, clear and light-bearing as a great tale, something like Lonesome Dove for the Tet Offensive set." Esquire
Review
"[A] complex and hypnotic vision, apocalyptic in its power and in its ability to move the reader." Denver Post
Review
"Dialogue crackles and burns a hole in your soul." Providence Journal
Review
"Having read nothing by Denis Johnson except Tree of Smoke, his latest novel, I see no reason to consider him a great or even a good writer....One closes the book only with a renewed sense of the decline of American literary standards. It would be foolish to demand another Tolstoy, but shouldn't we expect someone writing about the Vietnam War to have more sense and eloquence than the politicians who prosecuted it?" B. R. Myers, The Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic Monthly review)
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
Twenty-five years in the making, a dark, indelible epic of the American empire in decline from the author of Jesus' Son, "one of the best and most compelling novelists in the nation" (Elle).
Synopsis
This book chronicles the story of Skip Sands spy-in-training, who's 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.
Synopsis
Somewhere in Vietnam's remote Cheo Reo province, opium fields are funneling millions into the Viet Cong war chest. On a covert mission to destroy the operation, Army CID officer Erik Rider encounters hard-pressed soldiers, indigenous tribespeople, spies, and profiteers of all stripes.
Hidden in the nearby hills, a North Vietnamese force grows larger by the day and threatens to overrun the area. The Viet Cong are on to Rider's game and have placed a bounty on his head. As he hunts the opium fields, skirmishes with enemy patrols, and defends the undermanned US base against nighttime assaults, Erik makes a disturbing discovery: someone close to home has a stake in the heroin smuggling ring--and will kill to protect it.
Written by a master, and as authentic as Matterhorn or Going After Cacciato, Red Flags is a riveting new addition to espionage fiction.
Synopsis
A novel of soldiers and spies in the Highlands of Vietnam Army cop Erik Rider is enjoying his war until hes sent to disrupt Vietcong opium fields in a remote Highland province. Rider lands in Cheo Reo, home to hard-pressed soldiers, intelligence operatives, and profiteers of all stripes. The tiny U.S. contingent and their unenthusiastic Vietnamese allies are hopelessly outnumbered by infiltrating enemy infantry. And theyre all surrounded by sixty thousand Montagnard tribespeople who want their mountain homeland back. The Vietcong are on to Riders game and have placed a bounty on his head. As he hunts the opium fields, skirmishes with enemy patrols, and defends the undermanned U.S. base, Rider makes a disturbing discovery: someone close to home has a stake in the opium smuggling ringand will kill to protect it. Written by a master, and as authentic asMatterhornorDog Soldiers,Red Flagsis a riveting new addition to espionage fiction.
Synopsis
Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year
Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Amazon.com, Salon, Slate, The National Book Critics Circle, The Christian Science Monitor. . . .
Tree of Smoke is the story of William "Skip" Sands, CIA--engaged in Pschological Operations against the Vietcong--and the disasters that befall him. It 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 the words of Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times, Tree of Smoke is "bound to become one of the classic works of literature produced by that tragic and uncannily familiar war."
Synopsis
Twenty-five years in the making, a dark, indelible epic of the American empire in decline from the author of Jesus' Son, "one of the best and most compelling novelists in the nation" (Elle)
Synopsis
An elite platoon of Special Forces soldiers infiltrates a forbidding Afghan war zone on horseback in search of vast treasure in this lyrical, thrilling blend of military fiction and Western.
Synopsis
When Corporal Elijah Russells superb horsemanship is revealed during a firefight in northern Iraq, the young Army Ranger is assigned to an elite Special Forces unit preparing to stage a secret mission in eastern Afghanistan. Elijahs task is to train the Green Berets — fiercely loyal to their enigmatic commander, Captain Wynne — to ride the horses they will use to execute this mission through treacherous mountain terrain. But as the team presses farther into enemy territory, the nature of their operation only becomes more mysterious and Wynnes charismatic power takes on a darker cast. Ultimately, Elijah finds himself forced to make a choice: on one side, his best friend and his most deeply held beliefs; on the other, a commanding officer driven by a messianic zeal for his mission.
Based on the authors extensive interviews with Green Berets, Army Rangers, and other veterans, this taut page-turner brilliantly fuses the war novel and the Western into a compellingly original tale.
About the Author
AARON GWYN was raised on a cattle ranch in rural Oklahoma. He is the author of a story collection, Dog on the Cross (finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award), and a novel, The World Beneath. His short stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in Esquire, McSweeney’s, Glimmer Train, The Missouri Review, Gettysburg Review, and New Stories from the South. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina where he is an associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and contributes book reviews, articles, and narrative nonfiction to Esquire.