Tree of Smoke: A Novel by Denis Johnson
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Book Reviews of Tree of Smoke: A Novel
Book Review: An Apt Picture of Confusion
Summary: 3 Stars
If you are looking for a stirring war-adventure narrative this ISN'T it. U.S. involvment in Vietnam was at the time, and still is, confusing and tragic. This book accuately captures the tragedy and confusion, but in a way that's difficult to take. None of the characters make you want to care about them in the slightest; The Houston brothers, one a sailor, the other a Army combat infantryman, are losers sterotypical of the 1970s Hollywood "burned out 'Nam Vet"; Dis every American come back from Vietnam a drunk and criminal? I kept waiting for Skip Sands to achieve some sort of redemption. His uncle the CIA rogue Col.Sands reminded me of a more academic Col Kurtz from 'Apocalypse Now'. I appreciate Johnsons skills as a writer, but found reading this a slog as difficult and disappointing as history shows us the whole thing really was. I found no closure in the ending.Book Review: Is there an editor in the house?
Summary: 3 Stars
Really? National Book Award? Really? Although Johnson has captivating scene followed by captivating scene, the book as a whole is bloated and over-written. I kept waiting for the corner to be turned and for there to be a tremendous payoff, but I finally ran out of steam and did something I rarely do. I gave up after 500 pages. With slightly more than 100 pages to go, I simply lost my will to care. Johnson is attempting to put together a mosaic. He goes about it in the right way -- he selects beautiful tiles, in this case, interesting scenes and brilliant dialogue. But in stepping back from this impressive tome, I'm not sure he has fully accomplished what he set out to do: to look at all the complicated and confusing aspects of the Vietnam War and put them into a cohesive narrative. It was a worthy effort, but in the end, arguably, a failed attempt.Book Review: Too much, too long, too little
Summary: 3 Stars
Having written a novel about the Vietnam War and read every fictional account of the tragedy, I picked up Tree of Smoke with great anticipation. It had garnered praise from the reviewers and been nominated for awards. I was greatly disappointed, but somewhat entertained. There is no comparison with Tree of Smoke to The Things They Carried or a dozen other Vietnam War works. Tree of Smnoke is much too much in its length, bloated prose, and too little in the soul of those who fought this misguided war.
Ron Lealos author of Don't Mean Nuthin'
Book Review: A Three Star Novel
Summary: 2 Stars
The writer Chaim Potok said once in an lecture I heard him give that a librarian had told him, when he, as a youngster, was checking out a book by Evelyn Waugh-- whom he thought was a woman-- that one should always give a book he didn't like 100 pages before quitting reading if the writer was a respected author. I thought of Mr. Potok's advice many times while reading TREE OF SMOKE-- all 614 pages-- although I soldiered on, hoping against hope that it would get better. Winner of the National Book Award for 2007 and praised by critics in most major publications save one that I was able to find, B. R. Myers' review in the ATLANTIC MONTHLY, TREE OF SMOKE is about Vietnam and covers a span of years from 1963, the year of President Kennedy's death, to 1970 and then skips to 1983. It has many characters including Skip Sands who works for the CIA, his bigger-than-life uncle, Colonel Francis Sands, two redneck brothers in arms, Billy and James Houston, an Adventist nurse named Kathy, several North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese characters as well as many bit players. Almost to a person the characters are not sympathetic. War is hell, the Vietnam War and all others. There is enough sex and cynicism to go around. Johnson, a recovering drug addict, sees the universe as pretty depraved. It is one of violence and betrayal. Kathy comes closest to the moral center in this novel although it very well may be outside this story. One character describes a situation as "Disneyland on acid."
Much of this far-too-long novel is tedious although occasionally brief passages stand out but they are too few and far between. Johnson's description of Skip Sands' grief and guilt, upon learning belatedly of the death of his mother, for example: "Then remorse crushed him physically, the blood pounded in his head, he struggled for breath-- he hadn't called, hadn't written, left her to ride to her death on a gurney all alone in helplessly polite apologetic midwestern confusion and fear."
Vince Passaro's review in NEWSDAY, where he heard in this novel "Whitman in his erotic excess," has to be the strangest comments any reviewer has made about TREE OF SMOKE. Occasionally I heard Hemingway, but certainly never Whitman, in the sex scenes between Skip and Kathy-- I hesitate to call them love scenes. Case in point: "It rained again, and then it was night. She couldn't return now to the missionaries in Bac Se. They slept together side by side, without sheets, she in one of his rough hand-washed T-shirts and he in boxer undershorts. Following breakfast the next morning she left for Baca Se on her black bicycle, and Skip never saw her again." This passage could have been straight out of A FAREWELL TO ARMS.
Johnson pretty much sums up his novel in a passage on page 192: "Deals struck in a half dozen languages, sinister rendezvous, false smiles, eyes measuring the chances. Psychos, wanderers, heroes. Lies, scars, masks, greedy schemes." Charles Bukowski would have liked this novel. Tolstoy would have not.
(You can go back and correct everything in a review except the rating. I meant to give this novel three stars.)
Book Review: Another overrated National Book Award winner
Summary: 2 Stars
I had so looked forward to reading this book. Several novels concerning Vietnam are among my favorites. James Webb's Fields of Fire, Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato and John M. Delvecchio's The Last Valley are superior works of fiction. I had read D. Johnson's books before and found them neither riveting nor memorable in any way. But with all of the hoopla surrounding its release, I was ready for something special. It started off that way. For the first half of the book, around 300 pages, I liked what I read even though I wasn't working up much interest in the characters, and the book is probably two thirds dialog, and not particularly revealing dialog either. By the time I neared the end I no longer cared about either the story or the characters. I stopped with 30 pages left,with absolutely no curiosity about how it ended because my enthusiasm had departed many, many pages before. Again, the National Book Award had been given to a book that I felt to be thoroughly undeserving, murky, unfocused and oh so ponderous, like an overblown Mahler symphony. Anyone ever tried to read The News From Paraguay by Lili Tuck, another NBA winner? Spare yourself. At least that book was short. This one just went on and on and on, draining every last bit of interest the further on it went. This was no literary Apocalypse Now. But as I neared the end I experienced Apathy Now.