Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27.00
In his first novel in nine years, acclaimed author Denis Johnson ("Jesus's Son," "Fiskadoro") takes the Vietnam War as his canvas and creates a masterpiece. At the heart of "Tree of Smoke" is Skip Sands, a junior member of the CIA, and his uncle, Francis Xavier Sands, a master spy known as "the colonel." Skip begs to be sent to Vietnam and finds himself involved in the colonel's ambitious psychological counterinsurgency operation. As Skip grows increasingly disillusioned with the war effort, he encounters an epic cast of characters, including Kathy Jones, a newly widowed aid worker whose sanity is compromised by her dark religious outlook. "Tree of Smoke" is a novel on an epic scale, virtually impossible to summarize. Suffice it to say that Johnson's prose is unpredictable, sublime and even cathartic, as are his characters. The novel is not perfect; it includes some long stretches of boilerplate dialogue and a series of recurring images involving monkeys that goes nowhere. But these are minor complaints, and readers who persevere through the occasional dry patches will find themselves rewarded by the overall power and lucidity of Johnson's extraordinary vision.
-Rebecca Oppenheimer
RSS Feeds
Be the first to comment on this article!