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What We're Reading:
Current Picks
from
the Watermark Staff
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Sarah Bagby's book reviews can be heard on
alternate Mondays on KMUW 89.1.
Here's a transcript of her most recent review. To listen, go to
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-646237.mp3
"Tree of Smoke" by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, ISBN 9780374279127,
$27.00)
Jonathan Galassi, the esteemed publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, now in its
sixty first-year, makes a bodacious claim about Denis Johnson's new novel, "Tree
of Smoke." He thinks this is one of the very best books he has ever had the
honor to publish.
Set between the years of 1963 and 1983, this 600-page novel is, on the surface,
the story of four Americans in the Vietnam War: two young brothers from Arizona
who volunteer to serve their country; a spy-in-training named Skip Sands; and
his uncle, a CIA veteran dubbed "The Colonel." From the Philippines to the
desert of Arizona to Saigon and environs, Johnson unveils myriad visions of
human folly against an elusive and changing enemy; the nature of belief in times
of happiness and horror; and survival in a war where the distinction between
official lines of duty and rogue service has vanished.
"Tree of Smoke" is as inventive a novel as ever was published. It is a book that
grabs a hold of you at page one and never lets go, offering revelations
unimagined.
Review by Sarah Bagby,
November 15, 2007
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