Tree of Smoke Review
Feb 2nd, 2008 by Nut
How we got here:
This book has been mentioned everywhere and was on tons of the “best of” lists. It’s also one of the books I committed to reading for this year.
There’s a book of short stories out there called Jesus’ Son. According to critics, it’s a fantastic book. According to my friends, it’s also a good book.
Those are two good signs that I’ll enjoy the book too.
Denis Johnson wrote that book, and he’s also the author of Tree of Smoke, a book that came out last year to rave reviews. It even won the National Book Award and has gotten even better reviews that Jesus’ Son.
I don’t think I’m all that great at reviewing books—I’d rather read them and enjoy them, but I’m not a big fan of dissecting them. What I do like to do is read other people’s thoughts on books. And here is the best review I’ve read for this book. It’s a negative one (which makes it pretty rare), but it’s spot on and comes from The Atlantic.
How could a book be 610 pages long, about the Vietnam war, have everyone raving about it, and not have anything happen? Trust me. In The Atlantic’s review, the reviewer notes that Johnson is often called a “writer’s writer,” which means that reading his work is painful and not that fun. That writers are probably more apt to enjoy and appreciate his work.
That’s not a good sign, since the whole aim of writing should be to entertain your readers.
The only reason I’m going to check out Jesus’ Son is that a lot of people who aren’t even mildly interested in this book have raved about it. I figure he had to have earned all this hype he’s getting, so I’m going to read his first book—the one that put him on the map—and see for myself if he deserves all this praise he’s getting.
Until then, I’ve seen nothing exceptional from Denis Johnson and, unless you are a hardcore, read-everything-about-it type fan of the Vietnam War, I would steer clear of this book.
Coming up Next:
When Genius Failed, by Roger Lowenstein
Lay of the Land, by Richard Ford
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