About this title: From the author of "Jesus' Son" comes this long-awaited follow-up--a National Book Award-winning tale of two American families swept up in the secrets and lies of the Vietnam war.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780330449212ISBN:0330449214
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780330449205ISBN:0330449206
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780330449205ISBN:0330449206
Description: Good. Book cover-The cover of this book is creased or has markings in accordance with the book's age. Cover type-This book is a paperback copy. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780330449212ISBN:0330449214
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780330449205ISBN:0330449206
Description: Fine in Good. jacket. Minor rubbing & ripping to edges of dust jacket, otherwise brand new & unread. Next working day dispatch from the UK. Please contact us with any queries. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Picador USA
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780312427740ISBN:0312427743
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 702 p. Audience: General/trade. Great reading copy. Has creases on covers and the edges are a wee bit dingy. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780312427740ISBN:0312427743
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-13:9780374279127ISBN:0374279128
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-13:9780374279127ISBN:0374279128
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-13:9780374279127ISBN:0374279128
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"I'm still not sure what I feel about this book. Frankly, after reading a number reviews here on goodreads I can sympathize with them all. So maybe that makes it a fascinating book. If you are wondering whether to put this on your list read 10 or so of the first reviews and you'll save yourself some time.
Yes this book IS about "Vietnam". You know the war. Another book 'Nam. And I think to compare it to other earlier novels on the topic is fair. But it's approaching 40 years later and he actually finished it now (even though he had notes on it back in '83). I looked a bit for interviews with Johnson on 'Tree of Smoke' because I wanted to know what he's said about it. Don't get me wrong I love all the erudite reviews and the reviews of reviews but just like in lit class I keep wondering what the author wanted to say. Until he speaks out I guess I'll have to tell you what I feel.
First it wasn't about the 60's-70's. It was about now. Iraq. Afghanistan. Yes. But for me it was about the characters struggling with the ever shifting vagueness of the moral world today. So you want to love your country and defend it against the nihilistic forces of the religious mafia nationalists. But once you take the stance, once you put up your dukes the world shifts. Smarts, bravado, faith, loyalty they all aren't enough to keep you from getting really dirty and confused. The main characters in the book all think they have a way to figure war out. How to deal with. Just look at where they end up. Is it a moral lesson? I don't think either. Most of the characters come to some sort of peace with their flawed viewpoints and ways of copping.
As has been pointed out the book is a bit obtuse to start and takes awhile to pick up the pace. For those that need a more straight line narrative this book will be a trial. I found that I had to make enough time to finish a full sub story so that I wasn't lost when I came back after a longer absence. And if you're looking for a plot you can predict, well move on.
I often judge the strength of a book by the effect it has on me. This book disturbed me. The characters disturbed me. The story is messy and so are the characters. I didn't find myself rooting for them but I sure wanted to know what would happen. I was sometimes confused by it's complexity. And I could help feeling that Johnson was trying to tell me something.
Again just look at the reviews and you'll see that the book must be multi-dimensional if readers (critics too) see it in so many different ways. I recommend it in part based on that."
"I admit I was biased toward this novel even before I opened it, due partly to prior admiration toward Denis Johnson and partly to the fact that this is the most beautifully designed book I own. I just want to hold it and look at it and rub it against my face.
That said.
Everything is accomplished in this book. The Vietnam War is approached from a variety of angles--infantry, tunnel rat, South Vietnamese fighter pilot, North Vietnamese agent, CIA operative, outsourced assassin--to attempt to give a complete picture of a convoluted epoch in world history. Going further, Johnson successfully ties these threads into a highly arresting narrative. And even further, the narrative is bursting with philosophy about what the War meant. The phrase "Tree of Smoke" is more than just a catchy title, etc.
'Tree of Smoke' contains a jarringly realistic vision of what it means when the front line catches up to you.
The prose is lean but potent. I didn't find the plot to be lacking a motor, in fact I read this book quite quickly. Denis Johnson's prior longish novel, 'Already Dead,' sort of descended into a quagmire toward the end. Not so with 'Tree of Smoke.' It's obvious that this subject meant a lot to him, and leads one to suspect he had long wanted to write about the Vietnam War.
I can only assume that as years pass this novel will be looked back upon as the quintessential novel of the Vietnam War. You should read it."
"Like many of you, I can't figure out why this book won the NBA. Not that DJ isn't a great writer, and parts of TOS are wonderfully constructed. But as a reader of hundreds of books on Vietnam and a three year all expenses paid visit there during the war, I didn't find insight into a darn thing, nothing new or meaningful. And I can turn and look at dozens of books on my shelf which are all of the above. And they didn't win squat. Obviously, some of you did.
Some of the comments (few actual 'reviews') are fascinating. Those liking it seem to be more vocal about ending all wars (I'm trying to stay away from current politics)than those who disliked it. A couple of the 'reveiwers' showed real ignorance about the VN war and the returning vet. And a number were 'miffed' that Johnson had changed genre without telling them. More than most books ("most" being very loosely used without benefit of any research or even a quick count) TOS reviews/comments seem to be about the reader, not the book. That's why I enjoy reading them.
So all in all, maybe that's why the selection committees liked it.
Of course it is often a kiss of death to compare a novel to great fiction (I'm thinking The Quiet American comparisons). Grahame Greene is a tough act to follow and if that were my only comparison, I would think TOS a poor nephew. Authors usually cannot control what a publisher or critic will compare his work to, and have to suffer the slings and arrows nevertheless (it happened to me on my first novel and some of the 'reviews' made me consider the witness protection program) yet that novel was quite successful.
So put me down in the 'didn't really like it' column, but I can't bring myself to give it only one star. That's for Harry Potter or Patterson books."
"I finally finished this amazing book. I am a fan of anything about the Vietnam war, you know, the first one we lost. That is what this novel is about, and naturally delves into each characters' "heart of darkness." Denis Johnson paints unfiltered portraits of a general, a corporal, a marine, a navy newbie, VC's, CIA operatives, assasins on both sides, a volunteer nurse, a priest, a double-agent, a girlfriend back home, an ignorant mom- every possible character perspective of a war that began SNAFU and ended totally FUBAR. Not for the faint of heart, this book goes right for the jugular and had me almost in tears by the end of the first chapter. This book masterfully illuminates how an innocent boy becomes a killer because of a war without sense or reason and how he copes with his primal self that religion and society are constantly trying to keep in check. Men and their wars: always a fascinating subject, made more poignant since we are now smack in the middle of another "history repeats itself" moment."
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