DaveNash3 reviewed Tree of smoke by Denis Johnson
Review of 'Tree of smoke' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
A checkered novel has blissful points and jarring nails-on-the-blackboard points. It has compelling story lines and a plot that falls apart. I’ve read a lot reviews on Tree of Smoke, which are either on the black squares or the white squares, but I see a whole checkerboard.
The Vietnam War frames this checkerboard. The novel illustrates life the ground and back home through the experiences of a few characters that could possibility represent many more. I’ve not read other works on Vietnam, so while this was interesting I can’t vouch for the accuracy. Tree of Smoke came out in 2007 and won the national book award. Did its significance draw from parallels with Iraq or Afghanistan? There is nothing in the novel to support parallel drawing, but it’s a common reaction to read that in. Like those who fought it, the market for books on Vietnam because we must process …
A checkered novel has blissful points and jarring nails-on-the-blackboard points. It has compelling story lines and a plot that falls apart. I’ve read a lot reviews on Tree of Smoke, which are either on the black squares or the white squares, but I see a whole checkerboard.
The Vietnam War frames this checkerboard. The novel illustrates life the ground and back home through the experiences of a few characters that could possibility represent many more. I’ve not read other works on Vietnam, so while this was interesting I can’t vouch for the accuracy. Tree of Smoke came out in 2007 and won the national book award. Did its significance draw from parallels with Iraq or Afghanistan? There is nothing in the novel to support parallel drawing, but it’s a common reaction to read that in. Like those who fought it, the market for books on Vietnam because we must process it and comes to terms with it, has passed into partial retirement. Why else 2007?
What type of book is this?
If this novel was broken into a series of vaguely related short-stories it would be a much better work. There are some really good short stories buried in the 700 pages (paperback edition). The story of Father Carignan stands out and sets the stage for later betrayals. There are several adventures of James Houston that thrill — his last days of high school life, first days in Nam, the Tet Offensive, and Lurping. The man and the myth of Colonel Sands may border on cheesy but still haunts the reader as does the ghost of the French doctor.
There is suspense, action, thrills, but not sustained over the 700 pages. Several stories fizzle — the show down with the double agent and hit man, Skip’s escape, and Storm’s return to South East Asia come to mind.
Some of the fizzle comes from the nails-on-the-blackboard prose. The Atlantic review highlights this: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/12/a-bright-shining-lie/306434/ . Ordinarily, I’d say the quality of prose is subjective. An author must make hundred choices, sometimes with a concealed reason. However, here it’s bad. Using the word bric-a-brac to describe a Vietnamese village is just wrong. This isn’t a first draft.
A part that the Atlantic left out was — when the catholic priest gives a homily to himself on Judas Iscariot and he rhetorically wonders why the leading Priests and the elders didn’t take back the thirty pieces of silver. This is not a profound question for long time catholic priest.
Another poor word choice — in 1970 James is mad-dogging people at McDonald's . The slang term didn’t surface until 1985–1990 and while it may be somewhat connected to prison culture it was out of place for a “cowboy”.
Given the fizzle, ham-handed philosophy, and missing on character dialogue, this is not a great American novel — “Johnson’s ‘War and Peace’” as one review wrote.
Tree of Smoke — can be a guiding light or destruction. It may symbolize God speaking to Moses in the bush (Exodous 33:9) or a pre-figuration of Christ (Song of Solomon 3:6). However, it’s also God’s judgment and punishment (Joel 2:30). In all these verses — the English from the KJV to NIV is pillar of smoke. Tree seems like a stretch and the novel doesn’t live up to this grandiosity. Other major biblical quotes: “one God, many administrations” and “all will be saved” don’t fit either, but overreach.
While he doesn’t get the religion thing and the philosophy stuff is eye rolling too. I did my best to go with it. If accurate, matching the ideal the description of a double agent to Skip was a good bit and I wish there was more on James Houston. If the author was trying to get me to feel Vietnam, I wouldn’t know it if he did.
The book grips you at times holding you in suspense. I stayed up late to get to the end, I didn’t get all the way because the novel just runs out of steam. It’s as if the author got bored and just wanted to finish.
Checkered doesn’t win National Book Awards. Some of the critical acclaim may only judge on the white squares, but you have to see the blacks too. As spy- war-thriller it’s a three-star book. As manuscript to be carved into shorter stories, it’s interesting. As a literary novel, it’s a failure.
