Tree of Smoke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tree of Smoke is a 2007 novel by American author Denis Johnson which won the National Book Award for fiction.[1][2] It is about a man named Skip Sands who joins the CIA in 1965, and begins working in Vietnam during the American involvement there. The time frame of the novel is from 1963 to 1970, with a coda set in 1983. One of the protagonists of Tree of Smoke is Bill Houston, who was the main character in Johnson's debut novel Angels, published in 1983.
[edit] Critical reception
Reviews of the book have been overwhelmingly favorable, with a few exceptions. Atlantic Monthly reviewer B.R. Myers criticized the novel, citing perceived failures in prose, dialogue, and characterization.[3]. Other critics did not perceive such flaws, and Tree of Smoke was swiftly cited as one of the Best Books of 2007 by The New York Times, whose reviewer, Jim Lewis, called the book "a massive thing and something like a masterpiece".[4] Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #5. Grossman praised the book as "the most ambitious novel of the year, and one of the greatest."[5][6]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ National Book Foundation. Retrieved on 2006-04-30.
- ^ Thompson, Bob (2007-11-15), Johnson's 'Tree of Smoke' Wins National Book Award, Washington Post, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111402806.html>. Retrieved on 15 November 2007
- ^ A Bright Shining Lie
- ^ New York Times Sept. 2, 2007
- ^ Grossman, Lev; "The 10 Best Fiction Books"; Time magazine; December 24, 2007; Pages 44 - 45.
- ^ Grossman, Lev; Top 10 Fiction Books; time.com
[edit] External links
- "The Revelator", by Jim Lewis, The New York Times Book Review, September 2, 2007.
- "Vietnam: Portraits from a Tragedy", by Norman Rush, The New York Review of Books, Volume 54, Number 16 ยท October 25, 2007.
- "A Bright Shining Lie", by B. R. Myers, The Atlantic, December 2007.
- Slate magazine Book Club Podcast. Critics Meghan O'Rourke, Katie Roiphe, and James Surowiecki discuss the novel Tree of Smoke.
